Communities from Sydney to Yarmouth will be receiving stimulus funding to provide affordable housing and create construction jobs.
A federal-provincial housing partnership worth $128 million has been announced for the creation, renovation and upgrading of social housing units. A little more than half of this is new money, with the rest coming from previous announcements.
About $20 million will be spent on more than 2,000 units in Cape Breton; northern Nova Scotia will receive about $10 million for 1,300 units; central Nova Scotia will get roughly $50 million for about 3,700 units; and approximately $16 million will be invested in more than 1,600 units in the western region.
“This investment in affordable housing is a major part of Nova Scotia’s Building for Growth provincial infrastructure plan, which will inject close to $2 billion into our economy over the next three years,” Premier Rodney MacDonald said in a release.
“The housing stimulus funding is also a major component of the province’s poverty-reduction strategy.”
In total, 400 new housing units will be created and renovations and energy upgrades will be done to more than 1,100 public housing buildings, co-ops and non-profits. The program includes about 8,600 individual social housing units.
The remaining $32 million of the $128 million will go towards continued funding for existing provincial repair programs and affordable housing, made possible through partnerships with private developers and non-profits.
