Affordable co-op housing project picking up steam on N.S. South Shore

CHESTER, N.S. — Cherie MacLeod is tired of not knowing her neighbours. She’s tired of not having a lot of affordable choices in the housing market.

So she’s doing something about it.

“I was going to buy something but there was nothing. There was nothing to buy, there was nothing to rent,” she said.

She sold her big Victorian house in the Chester area in 2020 but couldn’t find something smaller to buy. The inventory was just not there. She eventually found a small rental surrounded by Airbnbs in Chester “but it’s not where I wanted to land.”

She’s also missing a sense of community — of having a conversation over a fence or borrowing a kitchen utensil when needed.

“I’ve been in this rental for a year and a half now and I don’t know anyone on my street and I’ve lived in the area, been in Chester, every single day for 25 years,” she said.

Since May, MacLeod, who works as a home designer, has been trying to get a co-operative housing project off the ground in the Lunenburg area. She said it would provide a sense of community and affordable living in a 30-40 unit neighbourhood owned and designed by the people who live there.

“All kinds of red flags go up when people hear the word ‘co’ anything. Is it a commune? How much sharing is there? Will I have any privacy?” MacLeod said.

“It’s important that people understand that you’re not restricted in any way, your privacy is not invaded because everyone involved in it designs the community, agrees to the decisions that are made, there are no rules going in. This is a free-for-all, we can do what we want here, let’s make some decisions: What’s our vision?”

Paying for it and what it will look like

Co-housing describes how the community operates (a close-knit neighbourhood) and co-operative housing is the legal set up of how the property is owned, explained MacLeod. In this particular project, it will be owned by the co-op and the direction, design and bylaws will be created by the members.

Members will buy a share in the co-op and pay monthly housing costs that cover the mortgage and operating costs. Members can stay in their homes as long as they want, as long as they abide by the guidelines.

The Residential Tenancy Act applies to co-ops in Nova Scotia. 

There are many co-ops in operation and they have been around in Nova Scotia since the ‘30s. They are considered a middle ground between owning and renting.

Co-ops have some general downsides, including the value of the properties might not climb as high as private homes, and conflicts with the communities’ bylaws.

Some co-ops fund the construction themselves but in this case, MacLeod said, their co-op board will apply for government funding. Municipal governments can help by waiving development fees and lowering tax rates, while the provincial and federal governments offer grants, forgivable loans and longer mortgages with preferred interest rates, she said.

There is definitely opportunity there. For example, in May, the province announced it’s providing a 1.6-acre property in New Minas to a co-operative to build 24 affordable units. Last July, the federal and provincial governments announced $13 million in forgivable loans to seven co-ops.

For government support, it’s preferred that groups already own the land, so they’re working on that, MacLeod said.

An ideal spot

There’s a property on the market in Lunenburg that would be a good fit. They’re working on an offer so MacLeod didn’t want to get specific but, if it goes through, the two structures on the property would act as the shared community space while the rest of the property would provide room for 30-40 prefab units.

She said the idea is that the membership will be able to put together enough money to put a refundable deposit on the property in order to hold it.

And as for how exactly affordable the units will be, that  will be worked out after the feasibility stage, she said. Co-op housing projects tend to be far more affordable than for-market rentals because they are non-profit.

“It makes it affordable when you have 30 households who can share in the costs,” she said, adding that they aim to make it a sustainable, green project, hoping to use as little concrete as possible by using prefab, efficient units.

“If we can have a number of super affordable, subsidized units that would be good. We’ll have at least 10 fully accessible units and everything else will be accessibility-build ready.”

MacLeod said their four-member board is hoping to get the non-profit co-op registered this week with the name Atlantic Sea Change Co-operative Housing.

The reaction

This summer, MacLeod posted about the project to some local community Facebook groups and spoke at a couple community meetings in Mahone Bay. More than 150 people are already on the newsletter email list. Two groups of eight people have been to view the property, she said,  and there are another 30 who want to see it.

At first, she said, she was thinking it would be for people over 55 but she found there were people of all ages who were interested so she dropped the age restriction.

“I’ve had a ton of interest.  Really, just a few posts on Facebook generated a ton of interest, and there’s a lot of skepticism, too, and that’s fine, I expected that. It’s a really new concept to a lot of people.”

Working together to make a good life

Anita Price is one of those who is really interested. She lives in a rental in downtown Halifax and has been intrigued by co-op housing for a long time.

“The reality of downtown Halifax is you’re in a perpetual construction zone so for me, at the present time, that’s the hardest,” she said.

“It’s pretty loud and it’s going to be loud for several years more so I’m definitely thinking back to quieter places.”

She said she’s drawn to the co-op because it’s a collective enterprise of people working together to make a good life for each other, and it’s cost effective. 

“The cost of living is kind of scary at the moment so looking for ways going into your more senior years to manage your overhead is really important,” Price said.

“Cost-effective housing for seniors is going to be increasingly important.”

There’s a lot of work to do and many things that need to fall into place, but MacLeod is confident the Atlantic Sea Change Co-op will be a reality. And hopefully sooner rather than later.

“I’m really optimistic, I really am,” she said. “I feel very certain.”