Affordable seniors’ apartments open in Cape Breton

Leslie Buchanan's struggle to find a place to live started when she went on disability pension.

"After my rent had gone up $200, then the landlord decided to sell the home and I really couldn't find affordable rent,”,the Sydney Mines, N.S., senior explained.

For months, she lived in a cargo trailer that was roughly 1.5 metres high and 2.5 metres wide. It was difficult to stay warm in during the winter.

Now Buchanan has a brand new space to call her own.

"It's permanent. It's safe. It's affordable,” Buchanan said of her new apartment.

Friday marked the grand opening of 22 new seniors' apartments built from the ground-up on Pitt Street in Sydney Mines.

The brand new complex was spearheaded by not-for-profit group New Deal Development - along with some government funding – in response to the local housing shortage.

"It's five years in the making,” said New Deal President and CEO Dave Julian. "We have a total of 42 affordable seniors’ housing units. We have a list of probably another 100 or so waiting for more if we can get them."

"We know that the numbers of visible and known homelessness in the CBRM - it's in the hundreds, for sure,” said Cape Breton Regional Municipality Mayor Amanda McDougall-Merrill.

McDougall-Merrill said while the housing crunch has long been reason for concern, she feels better days are ahead.

"I think we're in a much better place because of a number of things,” McDougall-Merrill said. “Our municipal planning strategy being kind of torn open, and by right people can now build six units. We've had money coming through the housing accelerator fund."

Buchanan knows firsthand how easily homelessness can happen.

"When I visit in Halifax and I see people in tents, I'm so grateful I had my trailer,” she said. “That could have been me."

Julian noted New Deal recently received two more pieces of land on the north side via donation and they hope to build another 80-plus units there over the next three years.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page.