Cheticamp community development group working to solve housing shortage

The Comité Communautaire de Chéticamp-LeMoine (CCCL), a local volunteer development group, is working to avoid a housing crisis in the Cheticamp, N.S., area.

"This is an immediate problem, we can't wait five years." said CCCL president Paul Gallant. "We've got businesses telling us that they were ready to hire such and such an individual but they can't find housing."

Difficult for newcomers

Gallant said it is also difficult for newcomers.

"When we wanted to bring in another family of refugees, we couldn't find housing," he said.

Gallant suggested at first glance you wouldn't think there was a shortage in Cheticamp.

"If you drive through Cheticamp and you notice all the houses for sale, logically you wouldn't think there is a housing problem," he said.

But many people are renting these homes for summer vacations and they are not available from May to October, he said.

Facilities for seniors

Gallant said a lack of low-income housing and specialized housing facilities for seniors are also factors that need to be addressed.

"This is where our demographics are heading" he said.

The CCCL has organized a public meeting for Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. in the Pére Anselme-Chiasson auditorium at the NDA School in Cheticamp.

Presentations will be made by Conrad Taves, a local architect working as a housing consultant for the Municipality of Inverness; New Dawn Enterprises, a Sydney-based community development organization; and Edgar Arsenault, executive director of La Coopérative le Chez Nous — an alternative type of residential facility for seniors in Prince Edward Island.