With federal support, N.B. could see greater growth in housing co-ops
CBC
A “small but mighty” part of New Brunswick’s housing makeup is poised to grow in the coming years, as three new housing co-operatives finalize plans to build about 200 new units in the province.
Tim Ross, director of the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada, said three new projects — in Fredericton, Sackville and an as-yet-unreleased location in the north — represent a resurgence in co-op development, which previously had flourished before the federal government’s withdrawal from housing programs in the early 1990s.
“Governments are now in catch-up mode,” said Ross, citing new funding programs aimed at growing affordable housing, including co-ops.
Housing co-ops are affordable by design, Ross said. A study commissioned by the federation found that in 2021, co-op apartments were between $400 and $500 less per month than private rentals.
There are three key reasons for the gap, Ross said.
Co-ops “operate on an economic break-even basis” as non-profits, most have access to grants or low-cost public borrowing, and they are not subject to the whims of the housing market, he said.
“Co-ops are not being bought and sold on a regular basis,” he said, so they are removed from the speculative market that has helped drive up private housing prices.
“And that's so important right now, because we're losing affordable housing in Canada at an alarming rate.”
According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Rental Market Survey, average rents in New Brunswick increased from $812 in 2019 to $1,229 in 2024, a jump of about 51 per cent over the five-year period.
The baked-in affordability of a housing co-op is something Janet Flowers is hoping to bring to new households in Fredericton.
Flowers was the city’s first affordable housing development co-ordinator and is now president of the New Brunswick Collaborative Housing Co-operative.
The group’s first project is a 97-unit building on Brown Boulevard on Fredericton’s north side. It will include a mix of one, two and three-bedroom units with common indoor and outdoor space. The site is already zoned appropriately, said Flowers, and if funding falls into place, could start construction as early as next June.
The plan is for some of the units to be subsidized by the provincial and federal governments so tenants would pay no more than 30 per cent of their income. The other units are expected to be at market rent or less.
A new housing co-op is also being planned on the outskirts of Sackville.
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