Eric Tusz-King and Sabine Dietz, board co-chairs of Freshwinds Eco-Village Co-operative
A non-profit co-operative in Sackville has announced tentative plans to build up to 60 housing units on 21-acres of serviced land near the golf course on Fairfield Road.
“We finalized purchase of the property in October and have since been working on developing site plans,” says Sabine Dietz, board co-chair of the Freshwinds Eco-Village Co-operative that was formed a year ago.
“We’re right now at the stage where we would like the community to know what’s going on.”
Freshwinds paid $450,000 for the 21 acres that include a house at 64 Fairfield Road next to fields and a wooded area that used to be part of Inez and Bill Estabrooks’s farm.
Board co-chair Eric Tusz-King says the co-op is planning to sell the farmhouse and four separate lots fronting on Fairfield Road to help finance the 40-60 co-op housing units that will be tucked in behind.
The project could feature townhouses and a two-storey apartment building with rent-geared-to-income units ranging in size from studio to 1, 2, 3 and 4 bedrooms.
Diverse village
“We’re calling ourselves a village and not just a housing co-operative,” Tusz-King says referring to the co-op’s 10 board members who range in age and income.
“We want seniors to be there and we want younger individuals to be there or couples or whatever the type of family arrangement is, so that we look after each other.”
Both Dietz and Tusz-King stress that the co-op would focus on sustainable living including energy-efficient heating, solar panels, car sharing, gardens and chickens.
“All these have to do with self-sufficiency, resiliency, community building,” Dietz says.
“These things of course are all connected: housing, food security, climate change, environment.”
‘Desperate need’
Dietz and Tusz-King say the co-op would help alleviate Sackville’s chronic shortage of affordable housing.
Dietz mentions the need for housing to accommodate new doctors and nurses including Beal University nursing students who will be trained at Sackville’s hospital.
“Drew Nursing Home is now using some of its rooms for its staff rather than the patients because the staff has no place to live,” Tusz-King says.
“There’s a desperate need and it’s at all economic levels.”
Government support
Freshwinds has hired George Cormier, managing director of the Moncton-based, non-profit housing organization Rising Tide, to help them raise federal and provincial funds for the Fairfield Road project.
“When we started this a year ago, I said, ‘There’s tonnes of funding out there, you know, everywhere, all sorts of things,'” Dietz says.
But she adds that once they started trying to figure out how to get access to that money, they ran into problems including the prospect of long federal administrative delays and provincial disorganization.
“It’s a nightmare,” she says.
“It’s a literal nightmare. I had no idea how impossible it is to find things, to know who can help with what. It’s disorganized to the hilt,” she adds.
“I can’t imagine how we want to have good housing in the province without having real good and solid co-ordination and support. I would say we do not have that in New Brunswick.”
‘Bumps in the road’
In the end though, Dietz says that in spite of occasional jitters, she’s confident the Freshwinds project will succeed.
“We know it’s needed, we know we can do it, we just need to line it up properly and I think we’ll be able to,” she says.
“There’ll be loads of bumps in the road. It’s not going to be smooth sailing, we all know that, but that’s fine too.”
“Even the goal is a goal,” Tusz-King adds.
“We want to build 60 units because we think that’s what the community needs, but it may be 35 or maybe 40, we don’t know yet. That’s what we have to work out in this business plan in the next seven or eight months,” he says.
“It’s an integrated model that takes time to work out.”
To read a recent Freshwinds news release about the project, click here.
To listen to CHMA coverage, click here.
Freshwinds’ 21-acre property consists of this farmhouse at 64 Fairfield Rd. and the fields and wooded area next to it two kilometres from downtown Sackville
The “non profit” model is everywhere in this region but people do in fact profit, so it’s misnamed and always promoted by these same people and they rely on government money to be successful so it’s a false economy. Private homes and private property are still preferable and in a place with so much land and so many resources available, there are better ways to create housing – it’s called free market capitalism. “Freewinds” units per sq. ft. will be incredibly expensive to build because of the nature of these “eco green” promoters here who live in a bubble of getting money for their efforts. A fun pet project but not a model I support … If only they could do their ‘construction work’ without continually sucking off the nannystate tit but that doesn’t seem to be in their DNA.. does it?
Like the “free market capitalism” apartment building going up beside the waterfowl park? You know, the one getting the million dollar tax break from Tantramar town council? Or should that be “nannystate” instead of town council?
You used two building examples you know are part of the smartgrowth agenda Jon.. so I’m not arguing with you; you’ve already decided I’m a parasite for simply advocating against taxation and less government. What would you like me to say? Builders are extraordinarily important people.. this town seems to have a lack of them. Why do you think that might be? Could it be the constant harping about how we are going to all be flooded in a catastrophe?
I think “Freewinds ” is a wonderful idea & would welcome, in a few years, the opportunity for my wife & I to live there. The concept that this will be ‘a village’ model is very appealing & the ‘green, sustainable living’ planning is what every housing project going forward must incorporate. The ‘Marshwinds Housing’ located in town has provided safe, quality, affordable housing for a number of years & more units like this would be a great asset.
Saying this, I therefore have to disagree with S.A. Cunliffe who seems to be suggesting that ‘free market capitalism’ is the way to solve housing problems. I believe that it is, in fact, ‘free market capitalism’ that has caused the housing problems we are faced with now.
I suspect you do not understand what I meant by true free market capitalism Dave… I meant the opposite of the current cronyism we see which has brought about the removal of private property rights and the right to develop your land and your property as an individual and not within a collective. Any group seeking funding to build homes from government is asking for preference over private property owners who wish to peacefully live their lives on their property and pay their taxes … I wholeheartedly agree there are problems today in our society but I will correctly attribute them to the adherence to the sustainable development global governance agenda and not to capitalism. Co-ops by their nature are basically kibbutizism and they are not for everyone, in fact, given the choice even the poorest among us would prefer to live in their own modest small private home rather than in a communitarian utopia that is ruled by a collective [just another layer of government]. I suggest this Eco group might be funded by government because they are working for them to transform society as they seek to remove the freedoms that private property ownership ultimately brings to people. If our government wanted to create more abundance in housing they would give individuals the same incentives they are giving to these collectivists [co-ops] but they don’t so that should tell you where they wish to take the direction of homes and how we are to live… manipulative government overreach in my opinion.
“Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.”
Over at the “Tantramar Affordable Housing Initiative” on Facebook with Alice Cotton… they were shown advocating for a tiny house community with Natalie Donaher, a Mount Allison University lab worker, suggesting the following in a post dated December 31, 2022:
“Hi all, as my workload at the day job winds down for the holiday season I was hoping to start on two documents listed below. I’m a recent member so if anyone can tag me on relevant posts I may have missed or (importantly) if this is repetition of work already being done, I would love to know. This is my inaugural post about a subject I’ve been intrigued about for years – if you’d like to contribute to my info gathering, please send me a message.
“Document 1: an updated summary of tiny house building codes being adopted elsewhere. Doc would include information about how by-laws work now & how they could work in the future to create higher density, small footprint single family homes on lots meant for one home (as policies currently stand). Has someone already made this summary? It is my priority.
“Document 2: Priority #2 is creating or adapting a business plan template meant for “investors”, to coordinate purchase of land and implementation of a higher density/small footprint group of single family homes for Tantramar region. Whether for their use under a co-op model or some other model. This involves scouring the web for best practices in these sorts of communities that already exist (THOW as an RV park/Pocket Neighbourhoods/The Village Model/Cohousing), but can’t be completed until Doc 1 is in hand. However it’s way more fun to research so I’m building my links library and taking notes now.
“I don’t love FB as a collaboration tool. If this sounds like something you’d like to help with, please drop an email in a private message and I’ll reach out that way (possibly via a purpose built collab platform if enough folks send me their contact details). [Photo from TumbleweedHouses.com blog]”
and in response – Andrew Black writes:
Andrew Black
“Amazing!! Let me know what I can do to help and please keep me in the loop as you gather information.”
and in response – Alice Cotton writes:
Alice C Cotton –
“This is fabulous, and I don’t think it’s redundant. There had been talk of getting zoning changed, so this will be supremely helpful. There are people in this town, wealthy ones, who do not want to see it becoming denser, but we have no choice.”
What I want to know is why some local people have such a strong desire to build housing for others when they have zero authority or mandate to do so. Yet people are happy to criticize John Lafford but at least he builds quality decent suites for his tenants. Why are locals happy to advocate that anyone live in a “tiny house/dog shed” ? I just find it offensive that this is considered an acceptable form of housing for anyone in Canada given our climate .. just because they are poor and struggling should they have to accept such a low standard of living? It is shocking to me and extremely sad to witness. Would Natalie, Alice, or Andrew be willing to live in a tiny house/dog shed for a few months so they are able to really know what they are actually advocating for? Anything less than 500 sq ft is absolutely unacceptable and unnecessary. Where is the common sense?
Thank you Bruce for reporting on this important project that will provide much needed affordable housing in Tantramar. Kudos to the board members and other volunteers for all of their hard work planning this housing cooperative and acquiring the funds to purchase the property. It is also good to see that the board has chosen land that will not be prone to flooding as the risks of flooding increase due to the human induced climate change which some of your readers still seem to be in denial about.
As an aside, I really like the logo for the Fresh Winds Eco-Village Co-operative. Considering that the cooperative is a non-profit entity, I think it is safe to presume that, unlike our municipal government, they didn’t spend $60,000 for it.
This is why our society cannot leave the housing market to the complete control of the private sector, and especially not to be used as an investment vehicle by private equity funds.
“A Calgary landlord who snapped up 20 properties in St. Stephen three years ago is letting some sit empty as the town grapples with homelessness and a lack of affordable housing.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/st-stephen-alberta-landlord-annette-penkala-starshine-properties-1.7106685
The simple answer then, Harold, is to just keep the builders busy building.. encourage young people into the trades. If our skilled builders and tradesmen create more homes and more abundance of housing units and the people here are also freed of the heavy tax burden by government on second home ownership this would be a much-needed push-back against the ever-present planners’ ‘smart’growth restrictions that are clearly limiting affordable home building creation in the first place. Accelerate the approvals on the single family home permit process and get out of the way while these productive men and women builders who know how to build homes get to do their thing and employ people in skilled paid work, so that more people prosper in the construction industry the better instead of hoping that our government will fix the mess they created in the first place by restrictions and interfering with the free market demands for lots more housing.
On a final note:
John Detorakis Mayor of St. George wrote on Facebook:
“With housing construction costs hitting $275 per square foot, why does the NB Dept of Education not do more to provide high school students with a Trades stream for hands-on learning?
Why Highschools dont do more to teach our youth that trades (carpenters, electricians, plumbers, welders, machinists) can be a rewarding career and vocation.
In countries like Germany, a good machinist or electrician is as valuable as an engineer or a lawyer. It is time to look at our attitudes about career planning we promote or discourage in our education system.”