The Village of Masset has submitted its completed Community Housing Needs Report to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing in the hopes of securing funding.
Chief administrative officer Trevor Jarvis briefed council members on the new report at their regular meeting on Aug. 24, saying “there is a bit of a mismatch in available housing stock versus what people are looking for.”
The report found that there are 462 private dwellings in Masset, of which 79 per cent are considered occupied by permanent residents and 21 per cent (approximately 100) are not being utilized.
Despite a “very large” number of one and two-person households for the population, which decreased to 793 in 2016, most dwellings have three or more bedrooms.
As such, single person families and retired people seem to be demographics that are not well served by the current housing stock.
“We’ll have to come up with strategies to try and address that,” Jarvis said. “We’ll have to figure out what’s available for funding and programs that are out there, and go forward.”
During the discussion, councillor Terry Carty added that he was surprised by the number of houses found to be in need of repair.
According to the 2016 census, 90 households in Masset are in homes requiring major repairs.
Overall, the report found there are 100 Masset households considered to be in “core need” for housing, meaning they are in housing that doesn’t meet their needs due to affordability challenges, major repairs needed or inadequate number of rooms for the family size, and they cannot afford alternative housing options in the community.
“There is plenty of housing inventory to meet current and near future needs, however, the problem is many of the homes require substantial repairs and/or small suites added for single people to live,” one survey respondent said.
Most of Masset’s housing was built before 1980, with the majority being built between 1961 and 1980 by the Department of National Defense.
Masset received $14,955 from the province in August 2019 to assist in the development of the Housing Needs Report.
ALSO READ: Port Clements and Masset receive funding for Housing Needs Reports
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