Tzara Maud
Speakers at the July 4 Cohabitat Nidazo event included municipal, provincial, and community housing leaders who shared their support for the rural co-housing project and emphasized the need for infrastructure funding solutions

By William Crooks

Local Journalism Initiative

Cohabitat Nidazo hosted a key gathering at the Maison Melba in Frelighsburgon July 4 to highlight progress on its 79-unit rural housing development and to rally support for a crucial next step: infrastructure financing.

The private event brought together federal and provincial representatives, municipal officials, leaders from the social economy sector, and longtime allies of Nidazo’s innovative co-housing model. The evening centred on a common challenge facing rural housing projects—funding basic infrastructure like water and sewage systems.

“We collectively raised $1.2 million to buy the land,” said Hélène Sactouris, general director of Cohabitat Nidazo, in a July 8 interview. “We have 32 members already implicated and invested. They’re working on how they’re going to be living together in this future co-housing project. But the hardest part remains: infrastructure.”

Unlike urban developments that can simply connect to existing municipal services, Nidazo must build its own systems—at a projected cost of $4 million. “Compared to towns, bigger towns and cities, we can’t just plug ourselves on the water and a system,” Sactouris said. “We have to build it, which is like a $4 million cost adding on to all of the rest.”

Sactouris said Nidazo does not qualify for existing public programs. The 47-acre site is being developed with environmental integration and rural scale in mind. “We created little bubbles throughout the 47 acres to keep as much green as we can and to reduce the impact,” Sactouris said. “We’re talking about 79 units,” she added, including “affordable lodging, a co-op, which permits a 25 per cent reduction on the price, and different types of co-ownership units with bifamilial, bigenerational, and a few single houses.”

Originally, the plan included buildings on a smaller lot across the road. “That little lot by itself—we had like six buildings on it—it was costing us $1.2 million,” she said. “So, we said in March, let’s put it aside for now. Phase two.”

The July 4 gathering was by invitation only and aimed to bring key stakeholders together. “The event was to put all the deciders, if you want, or big influencers together and to tell them where we are,” said Sactouris. “The ball’s been passed around for a year and a half through all the funds. I’ve been everywhere. And then I said, okay, that’s enough with the ball there. I get everybody into the same room and let’s find a solution together.”

She added that the project’s goals extend well beyond simply building homes. “We want the schools to keep open, we want services, we want to be able to lodge workers,” she said. “It’s much more than just having affordable housing. It’s the impact that it has on health, on social economic development in a little town.”

According to a related press release, Frelighsburg’s mayor, Lucie Dagenais, voiced her support at the event, saying, “We are with you until the end.” Maude Brossard, deputy director of the Chantier de l’économie sociale, stated, “Nidazo is a pearl in Quebec and an imposing voice,” and pledged to collaborate on funding challenges for rural cohabitation projects. Guillaume Brien, director general of the Fédération des coopératives d’habitation de l’Estrie, reminded the audience, “This co-op model is the strongest and most resilient of all types of businesses.”

The town of Frelighsburg is also planning infrastructure upgrades. “They have to rebuild their wastewater treatment,” Sactouris said. “They’re happy to rebuild it, but the analyses that we had at the beginning—even with the one that they have now—they could furnish it.”

She added that Nidazo will finalize its infrastructure plans once the town selects a firm for the work. “That’s going to be our cue to finalize,” she said. “But then we’ve got to pay for it.”

Nidazo’s model is intentionally non-speculative. “We sell at cost, and whatever suspension we have is just deducted off the total,” Sactouris explained. “We’re a non-profit.”

Looking ahead, she hopes Nidazo can help open doors for similar projects. “We’re not just asking for ourselves,” she said. “We’re opening the way for others to come. There’s a bigger pressure. It’s not just us saying, ‘Hey, hi, we’re alone, help us out.’”

For more information, visit www.nidazo.ca.