Habitat for Humanity plans big Spryfield development

Habitat for humanity Nova Scotia is hoping to break ground in the spring on a new development in Halifax's Spryfield area that will offer homes for people who otherwise could not afford it.

Executive director Donna Williamson says the vision for the five-and-a-half acre property off of Drysdale Road, not far from J.L. Ilsley school, includes “70 doors” in a mix of townhouses and single-family homes.

“Right now in Nova Scotia, we're not making as much of an impact as I'd like to see because we're only doing one or two houses a year, and we certainly in our province — and across the country — need to see more impact, and want to see more impact,” Williamson said in a recent interview.

“So we are working on quite a large development in HRM that hopefully over the next five years will see 70 doors in HRM.”

Williamson added that that's not going to make a big dent in the ever-growing need for affordable housing, but the organization is committed to doing its part.

She said she has seen on news sites where big developers are having a hard time finding available land.

“It really is a crisis and we need to work together to find the solution. We definitely, at Habitat, want to be seen as a leader in affordable housing.”

Williamson pointed to the rise of a red-hot housing market as the pandemic led to people working from home.

“We're seeing this across the country,” he said. “We're seeing that it's even more difficult for us to meet our mission when we're trying to put low-income families into affordable housing when middle-income families in our country can't afford housing. So what are we going to do about this as a province and as a country? How are we going to support this and change this?

“I heard someone say recently that Halifax or Nova Scotia is Vancouver 10 years ago.”

She told of someone she knows who bought a house in Hammonds Plains that three years ago would have been $300,000 but they paid $650,000.

“Who can afford that? Who can afford a mortgage on a $650,000 home? That's not low-income, that's not middle-income.”

Habitat for Humanity will also look toward other models outside of home ownership to explore different options because they know it's not attainable for everybody.

The Nova Scotia chapter has projects elsewhere in the province, too.

“We do have that project for HRM, but currently, we've just finished a renovation of a home in Cape Breton, so we're hoping that we'll have a family selected and in that home by the end of this year. And we are just about ready to start a singlefamily home in Oxford, Nova Scotia. And we have a chapter in Pictou County — that's actually where I'm heading now for a meeting — and we're looking at starting in 2022 of putting a single-family home in Stellarton.”

Habitat has also joined Allstate in a two-year partnership to offer insurance resources and education as well as donating $50,000 this year toward local home-building efforts across Canada.

“We need to get people into homes and we want to get people into home ownership,” Williamson said.

“Having Allstate on board, I know with their social responsibility mandate for the inclusion and empowerment, we see that as well . ... We want to be working with other organizations who are working with people who are homeless and to help them and educate them toward a future possibility of home ownership. And it's in our long-term plan.”

A volunteer works with Habitat for Humanity on one of its recent builds.