HALIFAX — When Amy Hendricks and Paul Davie moved to Antigonish, N.S. from Yellowknife, they had a bit of a struggle on their hands: finding the right plot of land.

“We thought, how hard could it be?” Davie said. “Then we spent a year or 18 months looking around Antigonish trying to find a place where you feel the click. It needed the right zoning, it needed space for parking.”

Hendricks is an internal medicine doctor who has spent a large part of her practice focused on cardiology. In the Northwest Territories, she covered a lot of ground – millions of acres – to see patients where they were, so she was comfortable working outside of a traditional hospital.

She and Davie decided to build a space where Hendricks could run a medical clinic on the main floor, and have room for their housing on top.

They worked with a Realtor who finally told them about a plot of land just outside of the city.

“It was magical,” Hendricks said, recalling walking onto the property for the first time. Right at the foot of Sugarloaf Mountain, the land was covered in trees, but still within walking distance of the hospital for Hendricks. “It was a no brainer.”

Hendricks and Davie bought the land – all 46 acres of it.

But they quickly decided they didn’t need all that space. “Paul said, can’t you imagine an affordable housing development here?” Hendricks said.

The couple found Colleen Cameron at a holiday benefit concert three years ago. Cameron, the chair of the board of directors for Antigonish Affordable Housing, had finished making some remarks, and remembered Hendricks coming over to her after the concert.

“She said, ‘would you like (some land) for affordable housing?’” Cameron said. “It’s a dream for us not-for-profits to receive free land. That is a big part of our expenses.”

Cameron signed on to the project, and worked with Davie and Hendricks to connect them to other organizations that would be interested.

The Naomi Society, a non-profit that helps people leaving violent situations with transitional housing, and the Canadian Association for Community Living, a group for people with physical and intellectual disabilities, each took a parcel of land for development.

Soon, the Sugarloaf intentional community was formed.

The CACL buildings are already in the works, along with the medical clinic. Cameron says she hopes shovels will go in the ground in late summer for the affordable housing units, as they are sorely needed in the area.

In a municipal housing report from 2023, the Town of Antigonish found that nearly half of all renters earned an income below what would be needed to afford the average rental unit.

Cameron says her organization was able to open up 17 units over 2017 and 2018. “We had 120 applications for the 17 units.”

Patrick McKenna, a coordinator with Naomi Society, says having a lack of affordable housing can be a health and safety risk.

“The Number 1 reason why people don’t leave violent situations is because there’s nowhere to go with the housing crisis the way it is,” McKenna said.

McKenna also says that while government support is available, that has also changed in recent years. “You can see the Houston government is starting to really tighten their controls; the Carney government is doing the same. I think it’s going to be more difficult for not-for-profits from a government funding standpoint.”

That’s why, he says, community-led projects like this one are so important, because community members are invested in and understand the needs of their neighbours.

For Hendricks and Davie, they could see first-hand the impact of the housing crisis in their community.

“We have multiple nursing homes in Antigonish,” Hendricks said. “At the wages people earn from working in a nursing home, they can’t actually live in the community.” Hendricks says she’s heard of workers driving in from as far as Port Hawksbury, roughly 40 minutes away.

Hendricks and Davie envision their intentional community as a place that can help alleviate some of those pressures and costs. They want it to be a walkable space, eventually adding a daycare and a corner store.

Despite the grand plans, neither Hendricks nor Davie see themselves as philanthropists or advocates for housing. They see themselves as people looking to share their space and create community along the way.

“It’s land we don’t need for ourselves,” Davie said. “It seemed a bit of a waste to just leave it there.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 4, 2025.

Emily Baron Cadloff, The Canadian Press