Province, Ottawa announce 25 new public housing units from wildfire relief funds

Provincial and federal officials say another 25 public housing units are being built across the province using relief funding from the wildfires last summer, part of the largest investment in public housing in Nova Scotia in more than a generation.

The single and multi-unit modular homes will provide housing for as many as 88 people, Nova Scotia Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing John Lohr and Halifax MP Andy Fillmore announced at a joint news conference on Friday.

"Our government is investing and acting quickly to reduce the public housing waitlist in order to provide homes for as many people as possible," Lohr told reporters.

The newly announced units are being built by Kent Homes, using $8.1 million in funding from a wildfire housing support program.

They will be installed by the end of March on provincially owned land or in private mobile home parks owned by Killam Properties and TBO Developments in Amherst, Antigonish, Barrington, Glace Bay, Port Hawkesbury, Ingonish, Westville, Clyde River and Springhill, the province said in a news release.

As of last August, only a handful of households had applied to the province for the modular homes that were set aside for those displaced by the wildfires.

Sites of Halifax developments unveiled

Lohr and Fillmore also unveiled details of the previously announced public housing for Halifax Regional Municipality. Around 150 units will be built at sites on Gottingen Street in Halifax and Old Beaver Bank Road in Lower Sackville.

Details on the other locations will be announced soon, Lohr said.

In total, the planned units will provide housing for more than 600 people when the project is complete in 2027-2028, the release said.

Nova Scotia's public housing waitlist stood at 7,683 households as of Dec 1.

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