Province adds 22 affordable housing units in Miramichi
Minister says 13,000 across New Brunswick are on the waitlist for public housing
The province has added 22 new units to the public housing stock in Miramichi, where the waiting list now sits at 530 people and families.
That's according to Housing Minister David Hickey, who said Wednesday that the addition marks the first time in 30 years that new public units have been built in Miramichi.
The city will soon see a 10-unit complex for families on Henderson Street and a 10-unit seniors' complex on General Manson Way.
Hickey did not have a timeline for when people could begin to move into those units. Two families have moved into a new duplex on Warren Avenue.
"That's our commitment — to continue to make sure that we are building faster than we have," Hickey said at an announcement in Miramichi on Wednesday.
He said more than 500 individuals or families are waiting for affordable housing and upwards of 100 people are living rough in the Miramichi region.
The auditor general reported 13,129 households were on the subsidized housing waiting list at the end of 2024. Of those, 3,601 were listed as senior, 4,173 as family and 5,355 as non-elderly.
The New Brunswick Housing Strategy, produced in 2023, aims to reduce that waitlist to 7,500 by 2026.
Mayor Adam Lordon said Miramichi is trying to meet the demand with a goal to add 240 units a year until 2030.
"Miramichi, over the last few years, including last year, is building new housing units at almost twice the national average," Lordon said. "And we're going to need more."
Lordon said the city donated surplus land to get the 22 new units built and has introduced incentives for developers to opt for affordable builds.
"We've made building new housing, in particular affordable housing, a top-tier economic development priority," he said in an interview.
"We've reduced the time, from the time that the [zoning] process begins here in Miramichi, the staff have it down to about four months."
Beyond the addition in Miramichi, the province said by news release on Wednesday, work is underway on 137 new units in 14 locations.
Hickey credited the previous government with shifting toward building new stock.
It had been 40 years since New Brunswick built new public units, according to a government news release, when former social development minister Jill Green added 24 to Fredericton last year.
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With files from Sam Farley