Habitations abordables Sutton (HAS) has received financial support from the provincial government and the municipality to build 18 new affordable housing units for families in Sutton. HAS is a non-profit group made up of ten volunteers whose mission is to support affordable housing projects in the area. While it has the financial support and the land needed for the project – provided by the Anglican church and owned by the municipality – HAS has been struggling to find bids for construction. HAS has extended the bids until mid-May and is waiting for the official confirmation from the government in hopes of getting the project off the ground as quickly as possible.

“Our group is ten volunteers that started a project thinking about what we could do in Sutton going on ten years ago and the possibility of looking at affordable housing in Sutton,” said Kenneth Hill, president of HAS. “Affordable housing and dedicated housing are two different issues. Most people think of affordable housing as either welfare or low-cost housing and this is not a project for that, but it does not necessarily mean it may not meet their needs too. It’s a project put on by the Societé d’habitation du Quebec and looking at funding and affordable housing for young families.”

Hill said that keeping young families in small towns like Sutton has become an issue.

“Like a lot of small towns like ours, tourist towns, the problem is keeping our workers and keeping our young families. Most of our local young families work outside of Sutton and eventually move away because of the lack of affordable housing,” he explained.

Hill explained that the average price for a 4 ½ apartment in Sutton is between $850 and $1000 a month. Wanting to move forward with the project, HAS is at a standstill with a lack of bids for construction.

“This is the first time we didn’t have any bids. We had zero bids in December. The reason is like everything else: the contractors in Quebec are super busy with all kinds of projects because there are a lot of municipal projects, lots of government projects, and private projects all basically geared in housing. So now we extended the bids until right until the middle of May,” noted Hill.

There will be two separate buildings consisting of nine units each.

“There’s going to be some vivid colors, very modern, and handicap access able too – that is one of our criteria. Our committee is formed of people with social backgrounds, some are contractors. I’ve got licensed contractors on our board so there was a study done over a year within our group itself to see what they actually wanted and presented when we had our architect make the plans up. Our architect is from the area to that has kind of a sense of that we don’t just want this great big block building up there,” said Hill.

HAS hopes that the project will have an impact on the retention of families in the area.

“If you’re working at a store or at the mountain and you are working between $12 and $20 an hour and add it all up at the end of the week. Especially with the price of gas and everything else – the travelling back and forth – it’s the retention of families and bringing back some families,” explained Hill. “As our first survey last year we had over 40 people that were willing. I see no problem in filling the 18 apartments and we are already thinking what’s the next project.”

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