Building Homes, Strengthening Communities
Our vision is to be a leading provider of non-market rental homes, supporting a vital economy, and communities and their citizens, across Nova Scotia.
Our Values
Workforce Housing
Housing Continuum
Mixed-Income Model
Energy Efficiency
Our Vision
Our Mission
Our Values
Our mission is to provide quality non‑market homes, and our commitment to prioritizing the workforce and moderate‑income households guides every decision we make. These values reflect how we show up for communities, how we steward long-term affordability, and how we pursue opportunities that strengthen mixed-income housing across Nova Scotia.
Enduring Commitment
HTNS is committed to building a growing and lasting portfolio of non-market housing, providing homes to moderate-income households. Our focus on long term stability is reflected in sustainable financial and environmental practices, strong operations, and thoughtful stewardship. We embrace innovation and adaptability to meet the evolving needs of Nova Scotia’s diverse communities—building not just homes, but a strong, stable future.
Mutual Accountability
HTNS thrives on relationships built on mutual respect, shared benefit, and inclusive collaboration. We engage openly with residents, staff, and partners to cocreate solutions that strengthen mixed-income, workforce serving communities and support our mission.
Purposeful Drive
We are committed to achieving sustainability, expanding our housing portfolio, and building a mixed-income model that invests in and empowers moderate-income working households and the communities they anchor. This leads to positive experiences for our residents and meaningful, measurable improvements across the province.
Opportunity Readiness
We build the capacity, systems, and partnerships needed to act quickly and confidently when opportunities arise to expand workforce and moderate-income housing. Our responsiveness is grounded in mission alignment and disciplined growth, ensuring that every partnership opportunity we pursue strengthens long-term community benefit.
Why is Workforce Housing Important?
How Do We Provide Community-Based Homes?
Why it Matters
Community‑based homes places long‑term stability and local needs at the centre of our work. As a non‑profit, HTNS reinvests rental revenue back into the homes and communities we serve, ensuring well‑maintained, stable, non‑market homes remain available for working households increasingly priced out of the private market.
Our Place On The Housing Continuum
HTNS operates in a non-market, or below-market rental housing segment of the continuum. We are not providing emergency shelters or transitional housing, nor are we primarily doing market-rate housing or homeownership.
Incentives reflect the difference between market or closer to market rents, and 28%-35% of the combined incomes of all household residents over 18 years of age.
Our work helps fill an important gap: the “missing middle” of housing — those who need housing that excludes market rental rates, decent, stable, and available when market housing is too expensive or inadequate.
What isOur Mixed Income Model?
We focus on essential workers who are increasingly priced out of the housing market — including teachers, nurses, tradespeople, and others who keep our communities functioning. By helping make rents more manageable for this segment of the workforce, we strengthen housing stability from the center outward. When working households are supported, the entire housing system becomes more resilient.
Rents are typically set between 28%–35% of the combined household income for all residents over the age of 18 in a unit.
How it Works
This model balances affordability, sustainability, and inclusivity — creating diverse communities where people from different income levels can live, work, and grow together.
The rent incentive is calculated as the difference between the unit’s closer-to-market rent and the amount affordable to the household based on income.
In some cases, adjustments are made to reflect household size or other socioeconomic factors.
Why it Matters
- Preserve affordability for moderate-income workers.
- Ensure financial sustainability for long-term building operations.
- Reduce displacement caused by rising rents or housing shortages.
- Strengthen communities through stability and diversity.
The mixed-income model is about fairness, flexibility, and shared opportunity. It’s how we build thriving communities — one household at a time.
Energy Efficiency
HTNS is dedicated to improving energy efficiency – reducing costs, cutting emissions, and creating healthier homes.
Through partnerships with EfficiencyOne Nova Scotia and programs like Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) Canada Greener Affordable Homes (CGAH), we implement upgrades and new technologies that have made substantial environmental improvements.
As part of our upgrades, we integrate solar panels, which not only reduce our environmental footprint but also lower long‑term operating costs, helping us keep housing more affordable for residents. Solar energy provides clean, renewable power that supports sustainability while making our buildings more resilient to rising energy costs.