ANTIGONISH: The Town of Antigonish will be applying to a federal program that incentives local government improving their housing supply.

Mayor Laurie Boucher told reporters following their regular, council meeting on July 17; council is aware of a housing crunch in their community and has decided to make use of the Housing Accelerator Fund.

“It’s imperative we do something about it, as soon as possible,” Mayor Boucher said. “We need housing, I call it “The Three A’s.” We need Accessible Housing, Affordable Housing and Available Housing. We know there are people living in inadequate housing.”

Something the mayor indicated isn’t always attributed to being a financial issue.

“You have doctors and nurses and professors from the university not able to stay because of lack of housing opportunities,” Boucher said.

According to information on the Housing Accelerator Fund, the application window closes on August 18.

Drake Lowthers

Drake Lowthers has been a community journalist for The Reporter since July, 2018. His coverage of the suspicious death of Cassidy Bernard garnered him a 2018 Atlantic Journalism Award and a 2019 Better Newspaper Competition Award; while his extensive coverage of the Lionel Desmond Fatality Inquiry received a second place finish nationally in the 2020 Canadian Community Newspaper Awards for Best Feature Series. A Nova Scotia native, who has called Antigonish home for the past decade, Lowthers has a strong passion in telling people’s stories in a creative, yet thought-provoking way. He graduated from the journalism program at Holland College in 2016, where he played varsity football with the Hurricanes. His simple pleasures in life include his two children, photography, live music and the local sports scene.

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Drake Lowthers has been a community journalist for The Reporter since July, 2018. His coverage of the suspicious death of Cassidy Bernard garnered him a 2018 Atlantic Journalism Award and a 2019 Better Newspaper Competition Award; while his extensive coverage of the Lionel Desmond Fatality Inquiry received a second place finish nationally in the 2020 Canadian Community Newspaper Awards for Best Feature Series. A Nova Scotia native, who has called Antigonish home for the past decade, Lowthers has a strong passion in telling people’s stories in a creative, yet thought-provoking way. He graduated from the journalism program at Holland College in 2016, where he played varsity football with the Hurricanes. His simple pleasures in life include his two children, photography, live music and the local sports scene.