• Black Nova Scotia
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Environment
  • Health
    • COVID
  • Investigation
  • Journalism
  • Labour
  • Policing
  • Politics
    • City Hall
    • Elections
    • Province House
  • Profiles
  • Transit
  • Women
  • Morning File
  • Commentary
  • PRICED OUT
  • @Tim_Bousquet
  • Log In

Halifax Examiner

An independent, adversarial news site in Halifax, NS

  • Home
  • About
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Commenting policy
  • Archives
  • Contact us
  • Subscribe
    • Gift Subscriptions
  • Donate
  • Swag
  • Receipts
  • Manage your account: update card / change level / cancel
You are here: Home / City Hall / Development agreement approved for Adsum project receiving federal housing cash through Halifax

Development agreement approved for Adsum project receiving federal housing cash through Halifax

January 19, 2021 By Zane Woodford Leave a Comment

Adsum Centre in Lakeside. — Photo: Google Streetview

Halifax councillors voted Tuesday to approve a new development agreement for one of three affordable housing projects receiving federal funding through the municipality.

After a public hearing at the Halifax and West Community Council, councillors voted unanimously in favour of the development agreement for Adsum Women and Children’s property in Lakeside.

The proposal from Adsum is one of three receiving federal Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI) money through the municipality, with Adsum planning to spend $3,977,188 on its property at 158 Greenhead Road in Lakeside to create 25 units for women, families and trans persons at-risk of homelessness.

As the Examiner reported in November:

There’s currently transitional housing in an old school house on the site, known as Adsum Centre, for 16 residents and their children in four units.

The plan, modified to meet the requirements of the RHI, is to add panelized housing to the site — five structures built using prefabricated panels — for a total of 25 permanent units.

“It has changed considerably but in some ways for the better,” [Adsum executive director Sheri] Lecker said. “It looks more like a community, I think.”

The other benefit to the change is that nine of the units — six one-bedrooms and three three-bedrooms — will be fully accessible.

The new building will also be more energy efficient, employing passive house design to cut energy use by as much as 70%.

“It’s built to the purpose that it’s going to be used for instead of trying to retrofit an old school that will always look like an old school,” Lecker said.

“That’s what makes this really exciting is that we’re not trying to fit a square into a round hole, but we’re actually trying to build for the future.”

The Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia (AHANS) made the application for a development agreement on Adsum’s behalf, seeking approval for six modular buildings — one one-storey non-residential and five two-storey residential.

The site plan for Adsum Centre in Lakeside. — HRM/Adsum/Passive Design Solutions

Adriane Salah, planner with AHANS, told the committee that Adsum modified the proposal to respond to community concerns, and has been part of the community for 20 years.

“Adsum’s very excited about this project and very proud as to how far they’ve come,” Salah said. “It will be a game changer for women, families, and gender non-conforming folks to enjoy quality housing built for the future. It will be sustainable, beautiful and a demonstration of what is possible.”

A conceptual rendering showing the kind of buildings Adsum plans to build on Greenhead Road in Lakeside.

During the public hearing, a woman who lives in Adsum’s Dartmouth housing told the committee the organization has saved her life.

“If I hadn’t found the supportive, affordable housing opportunity given to me by Adsum, I would have continued to struggle with mental health issues and homelessness, I’m sure of that,” she said. “Without this kind of support, the cycle of homelessness continues.”

A nearby resident, Curtis Rafuse, said he has no issue with the proposal but warned that Greenhead Road could use pedestrian improvements to be safer for kids.

City planner Jacqueline Belisle, who recommended in favour of the development agreement, noted in the staff report there were some concerns raised during community consultation on the plans. Those included “Concern regarding smoking (tobacco and cannabis) occurring off-site” and “Concern regarding the entertaining of men in the surrounding wooded areas off-site and in private vehicles parked on Greenhead Road.”

To address the smoking issue, the development agreement requires a smoking area on the property.

“With respect to other behaviours identified, while there is not a solution that can be implemented through the mechanism of a development agreement, this planning process has provided an avenue for the applicant to be made aware of the community concerns and take steps within their programming to address these concerns,” Belisle wrote in the staff report.

None of these concerns was raised during the public hearing, and councillors voted unanimously in favour of the proposal.


The Halifax Examiner is an advertising-free, subscriber-supported news site. Your subscription makes this work possible; please subscribe.

Some people have asked that we additionally allow for one-time donations from readers, so we’ve created that opportunity, via the PayPal button below. We also accept e-transfers, cheques, and donations with your credit card; please contact iris “at” halifaxexaminer “dot” ca for details.

Thank you!




Filed Under: City Hall, Featured, News

About Zane Woodford

Zane Woodford covers municipal politics for the Halifax Examiner. Email: [email protected]; Twitter

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

PRICED OUT

A collage of various housing options in HRM, including co-ops, apartment buildings, shelters, and tents
PRICED OUT is the Examiner’s investigative reporting project focused on the housing crisis.

You can learn about the project, including how we’re asking readers to direct our reporting, our published articles, and what we’re working on, on the PRICED OUT homepage.

2020 mass murders

Nine images illustrating the locations, maps, and memorials of the mass shootings

All of the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, and recent articles on the Mass Casualty Commission and newly-released documents.

Updated regularly.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Two young white women, one with dark hair and one blonde, smile at the camera on a sunny spring day.

Episode 79 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Grace McNutt and Linnea Swinimer are the Minute Women, two Haligonians who host a podcast of the same name about Canadian history as seen through a lens of Heritage Minutes (minutewomenpodcast.ca). In a lively celebration of the show’s second birthday, they stop by to reveal how curling brought them together in podcast — and now BFF — form, their favourite Minutes, that time they thought Jean Chretien was dead, and the impact their show has had. Plus music from brand-new ECMA winners Hillsburn and Zamani.

Listen to the episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

Sign up for email notification

Sign up to receive email notification when we publish new Morning Files and Weekend Files. Note: signing up for this email is NOT the same as subscribing to the Halifax Examiner. To subscribe, click here.

Recent posts

  • RCMP Chief Supt. Chris Leather is being investigated concerning decision to not alert the public about the mass murderer’s fake police car May 17, 2022
  • City camping: Toronto teaches Halifax another lesson about tents, parks, and homelessness May 17, 2022
  • Halifax police board moving slowly on defunding report recommendations May 16, 2022
  • There’s no meaning in mass murder May 16, 2022
  • Tech issues bedevilled the RCMP response to the mass murders of 2020 May 16, 2022

Commenting policy

All comments on the Halifax Examiner are subject to our commenting policy. You can view our commenting policy here.

Copyright © 2022