A look inside Rising Tide's first affordable housing units

Patricia Coucheir stands in Unit 2 beside a small counter with folded hand towels and a coffee maker.

A few steps away, a twin-sized bed is ready for someone to curl up under the blankets.

"I'm extremely excited," says YWCA Moncton's director of housing and community outreach services. "It is a beautiful building."

Coucheir is standing in one of Rising Tide Community Initiatives Inc.'s first affordable housing buildings. The Moncton non-profit has committed to open 160 units by 2023.

On Monday, Rising Tide was showing the building to MLAs and members of the media. The first building resident could move in by next week.

"The place is — it provides dignity… in addition to the roof it provides," Myriam Mekni, Rising Tide's managing director, said in an interview.

Inside Rising Tide's first building

3 years ago

Duration 2:12

Rising Tide in Moncton is close to opening its first affordable housing building. The non-profit is partnered with YWCA Moncton, which will provide support services to tenants in the building's eight units.

Rising Tide has partnered with the YWCA on the building. The YWCA will offer support services to the eight women who will soon live here. 

Coucheir said those supports can range from help with finances, working on getting sober or getting an education. 

The three-storey building has seven one-bedroom units and one bachelor unit. Each unit will be equipped with a bed, fridge, desk, small kitchen appliances, dishware and other basics. A stove and dining table are located in a common room. 

A larger common room will be used for programming and office space for a client support worker.

Tenants, all women in this building, will be selected from what's known as the by-name list, which tracks people who are chronically homeless in the Moncton area. Moncton council was told earlier this month that there are about 90 women on that list.

Rent will be set at 30 per cent of a tenant's income. There's no time limit for how long a person can stay in the units. 

"It's incredibly exciting because currently there is this huge affordable housing crisis in Moncton and having these eight units — it's just amazing," Coucheir said.

Rising Tide received more than $15 million in funding from the City of Moncton, provincial and federal governments for the 160 units. 

A second building with seven units is expected to be ready in the coming weeks.