With the help of federal funding, Adsum for Women and Children will be building affordable and accessible housing for up to 60 people.
Adsum, along with the North End Community Health Association and the Mi'kmaq Friendship Centre, are on the receiving end of $8.7 million through Ottawa's Rapid Housing Initiative.
The program aims to help cities and housing providers buy properties and turn them quickly into affordable units.
Sheri Lecker is the Executive Director of Adsum for Women and Children, and says the $4 million it has been allocated will go towards 25 new apartments - nine of which will be accessible.
"We are really committed to developing truly affordable housing for women, families, for trans, and gender non-conforming persons," she says. "We want to build homes that people can live in for the long-term, in a neighbourhood and community that they are proud of, included and a part of."
She says the units being creating through the rapid housing initiative are only a small amount of what is needed.
"It's not a secret to anyone in Nova Scotia that we are in crisis, with a lack of truly affordable housing," she says. "What we are proposing is just a drop in the bucket of what's needed."
Lecker says it is inspiring one dozen non-profit housing groups submitted proposals for the funding within about a month.
"Now we know there are lots of projects that partners can be working on to realize housing," she says. "We need to see really deep investment, in non-profit owned affordable housing."
