The province is taking another step to protect affordable housing.
Non-profit groups can now access up to $10 million in repayable government loans through the new Community Housing Acquisition Program (CHAP), to support the purchase of existing rental units.
Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister John Lohr announced the first investment under the program on Wednesday: A $5.6 million, low-interest mortgage for the Housing Trust of Nova Scotia to purchase five properties in the city.
This program will help non-profits compete with private developers for buildings coming on the market, President Ross Cantwell said, speaking outside the Crown Road building included in the group’s purchases.
“We just need access to the resources. That’s the great thing about this CHAP program is it kind of levels the playing field for us.”
The goal of the lending program is for community housing groups to purchase multi-unit rental properties, keeping rents affordable for the people living there, who may otherwise face increased rents if private developers purchase and renovate buildings.
“There’s no one solution to the housing crisis, but this is a part of it,” Lohr said at the announcement.
The Housing Trust plans to spend $15 million renovating the buildings. Cantwell said rents may go up slightly on some units to help offset renovation costs, but the goal is to keep most as affordable units.
“The way we will rate ourselves in the future is [by] how many we’ve been able to keep affordable.”
The building on Crown Drive where single-mother Trisha Estabrooks has been living for five years was purchased by the Housing Trust of Nova Scotia. Photo: Anastasia Payne
Trisha Estabrooks has lived at the Crown Drive building where the announcement took place for five-and-a-half years.
In May, she knew the building was on the market; she didn’t know who would buy it – or if the new owner would renovict her.
A single mother of two children, Estabrooks looked but couldn’t find a unit priced anywhere close to the $867 per month she currently pays.
“As a single parent, kids are not getting less expensive and we want to have somewhere they can be comfortable,” she said. “I’m also in a really great school district so it was really important for me to be able to stay here and have my kids… continue to be with their friends.”
To her relief, Estabrooks found out in June that the Housing Trust would be purchasing the building.
Halifax Regional Council also approved a $445,500 grant to offset the deed transfer tax on the properties.
“We need new affordable housing, but with supply chain issues, with labour challenges, with the interest rates it’s becoming more and more unaffordable to build affordable,” Mayor Mike Savage said. “So, it makes it more important, in my view, that we maintain existing affordability wherever we can.”
The new program provides up to 95 per cent financing for non-profit groups to help purchase existing multi-unit properties.
Additionally, 100 per cent financing will be available for supportive housing projects in partnership with the Department of Community Services.
