Housing Affordability

Housing affordability is a very important concern for Northumberland residents. In our 2023 Budget Survey, respondents ranked housing as one of the top three most important issues facing our community today.  

In 2020, the County introduced an Affordable Housing Strategy for the community - a strategy to increase the supply of housing throughout Northumberland at various levels of affordability, using the tools and resources available to a municipality.  

Since that time, the County has launched construction, pre-construction activities, or purchased over 100 units of affordable housing (ranging from Rent-Geared-to-Income (RGI) to affordable market rent units) to add to the existing stock of 674 RGI and 117 market rent housing units operated by the Northumberland County Housing Corporation (NCHC), non-profit housing corporations, and co-operative housing providers throughout the community. More of this work is yet to come.

The County has also introduced a grant program to stimulate development of affordable units by private and non-profit developers, continued with partnerships like the Renovates program with Habitat for Humanity Northumberland, and increased rent subsidies to support greater affordability in the private market,  to advance the Affordable Housing Strategy.

We’d like to understand what “housing affordability” means to you and why you feel this issue is important. Share your comments and heart the ones you like or agree with.  

Here are some questions to consider:

• When you hear “housing affordability” what comes to mind? How would you define housing affordability?  
• How does the issue of housing affordability affect you? Why is this issue important to you? Why does this issue matter for our community?
• If we made major improvements in housing affordability over the next 10 years, what would change for our community?