N.S. government announces 24 new affordable housing units in New Minas

A new neighbourhood of co-operative affordable housing units will be coming to New Minas, N.S., with construction expected to start early in 2024.

Premier Tim Houston and Housing Minister John Lohr announced in a news conference Wednesday that the province is providing 0.7 hectares of land to Valley Roots Housing Association to build 24 affordable units, through the land for housing initiative. That program makes land owned by the province available for housing development.

This is the first development for the non-profit Valley Roots Housing Association, but executive director Mary Fox said the organization hopes to build 100 affordable units in the span of three years.

Fox said the housing crisis is touching all areas of the province, but she's seeing the effects in the Annapolis Valley.

"We have people currently who are staying out in the open or on friend's couches," she said. "There are people moving to the area without a place to live ... local employers can't hire people from outside the area because they don't know where to live."

The new downtown neighbourhood on Highbury Road will include a mix of one- to three-bedroom units, including two fully accessible units.

It's currently a vacant lot, and Houston said it was identified by the province as a good location for housing.

"It was just sitting here," he said. "So there's a number of parcels like this around the province and we'll work with communities, we'll work with the organizations like the great organization here ... those types of partnerships are how we move the province forward."

Mix of affordability models

Earl Mielke, the consultant working on the project, said the goal is that around half of the 24 units will be deeply affordable, meaning the rent won't cost more than 30 per cent of the household's income.

The rest will use a different definition of affordability, aimed at costing less than 80 per cent of the average market rent in the area.

"Costs are going up all the time and that's what's becoming so challenging," Mielke said. "Especially the private sector aren't very interested in really hitting the lower rents. The not-for-profit, we're going to seek as much funding as we can for capital and then see if there are any subsidies available."

The project is in the pre-development and design stage, and Mielke said it will be funded by a mix of federal and provincial grants and loans. He estimated the total cost will be between $7 million and $8 million.