The Nova Scotia government has identified the first 37 lands it owns that it will make available for housing developments.
“Nova Scotians need housing. The lack of available and affordable housing right now is challenging people, families and communities in this province,” Housing Minister John Lohr told a news conference in Halifax on Tuesday. .
Of the advertised sites, two are the most advanced. The Dartmouth Non-Profit Housing Society will build 18 affordable units on one site on Circassion Drive in Cole Harbor, while proposals for land at 1 King St. are now being evaluated. in Dartmouth.
Land on Windsor’s Tremain Street; Chapel, Mechanic and Elm streets in Springhill; and six residential lots near the site of the former Bowater Mersey paper mill in Brooklyn, are now open to proposals. Lohr said the remaining sites will be open for bids after further preparation.
A focus on affordable housing
Department officials told reporters that unlike a traditional call for proposals, the government will use a less restrictive method to consider options for this land. Lohr said the goal is to develop as much affordable housing as possible, but said the province also needs other types of housing.
The final approval of each development will be made by members of the Treasury Board, Lohr said.
Nova Scotia Housing Minister John Lohr speaks to reporters at a news conference in Halifax on Tuesday. (Paul Palmer / CBC)
The government is using the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s definition of affordable housing as applied to the National Housing Co-investment Fund. In this context, at least 30 percent of the units in a given project should cost less than 80 percent of the average market rent.
Successful proposals will be based on what best meets the needs of the community and the field in question. What is finally approved would also dictate how much land is sold. Government officials said the process was not about making money, noting that the land would be sold for much less to nonprofits, cooperatives and other community groups than to a market housing developer.
Opposition MPs want faster action
The lands initially selected were chosen based on how quickly they could be prepared and why the communities where they are located have the greatest need for new housing. This includes parts of Halifax Regional Municipality, Cape Breton Regional Municipality, Bridgewater, Yarmouth, Wolfville, Pictou County and New Minas.
Critics of opposition housing said they were pleased to see the government’s announcement, but both Liberal MP Lorelei Nicoll and New Democrat Suzy Hansen said the province could go further, faster.
Hansen said the government could use a first-refusal approach to acquiring properties.
“We know there are several apartment buildings, there are a number of properties that are on the market right now that we could be, you know, buying and using affordable housing,” he said.
Nicoll said he worries if there are enough traders to build the projects as soon as necessary.
Both Hansen and Nicoll said that the definition of the province of affordable housing should be linked to a person’s income and ability to pay, rather than market value.
It helps to deal with homelessness
The government’s announcement on Tuesday follows a recommendation from the province’s Affordable Housing Commission last year to identify the maximum number of government-owned land that could be made available for housing developments.
Lohr said these efforts will continue, and will be adjusted as needed, until the province’s housing crisis is resolved.
The announcement came on the same day that a one-time count showed that at least 586 in the Halifax area were suffering from homelessness on April 7th. The authors of the report believe that the actual number of people in need is actually greater.
Lohr said his department continues to work with Department of Community Services officials to try to create as many housing options as possible. The province has partnered with several community groups in recent months to support more reception spaces, long-term hotel stays and the conversion of motels into affordable housing.
“We’re doing a lot of things, but I’m not happy,” Lohr said. “We have to do more and we will do more.”
MORE MAIN STORIES