Saugeen Shores adding affordable housing with Habitat for Humanity partnership

Housing construction in Port Elgin, February 2025 (Scott Miller/CTV News London)

The Town of Saugeen Shores is booming.

The communities of Port Elgin and Southampton have added nearly 1000 housing units in the past two years, setting a $315 million building permit record in 2023 alone. While many of those housing units were single family homes to compliment the influx of people coming to work at Bruce Power, most of that recent construction has centred on higher density housing.

“We’ve gotten all sorts of high density residential units, and apartment units built - over 600 in the last two years. We’ve got things like our municipal housing allowance, which have effectively turned 40 of those 600 units into affordable housing units,” said Saugeen Shores Mayor, Luke Charbonneau.

With more than 1000 people on Bruce County’s community housing waitlist, Saugeen Shores saw the need for more. The municipality is partnering with private developer Wilson Developments and Habitat for Humanity to build 30 more affordable townhouse units on municipally owned land.

“We have identified a lot of surplus land the municipality owns that we can do similar things with in the future. So, this is just the first of what I expect will be many agreements that we’ll strike, perhaps not with Habitat and Wilson, maybe with other partners, but where we’ll be able to create different mixes and different types of affordable housing,” said Charbonneau.

In Huron County, a new 20 unit community housing complex just opened late last year in Exeter. Huron County is spending $20 million to add 70 affordable housing units by year’s end.

“For example, on our Bennett Street project in Goderich, we took down two community housing, single family homes. And in their place, we constructed two triplexes. So, now we’re offering six units where two units were once before. And we also have another building in the works right now, it’s under construction and it’s going to be a 40 unit build,” said Barbara Hall, Huron County’s Director of Social and Property Services.

Craig Campbell is one of the residents at the new Exeter community housing complex, where rent is $763 per month for a one bedroom apartment.

“It’s nice to have an affordable unit and save money, especially compared to the prices, out there,” he said.

Charbonneau says the finer details haven’t yet been worked out on their partnership with Habitat for Humanity and Wilson Developments, but they are excited to add more affordable housing options to their community.

“There’s no one solution to the housing affordability crisis. We have to do many things all at once, and one of those things is working with partners to actually build some affordable housing units in our community, and Habitat’s one of those great partners you can work with,” said Charbonneau.

You can learn more about Saugeen Shores’s affordable housing plan by visiting Town working with Habitat for Humanity to increase affordable housing in Saugeen Shores - Saugeen Shores.