The Town of Hearst is taking a preliminary look of how to solve its housing shortage. It’s studying whether to increase residential units within the downtown core. Councillor Martin Lanoix says it’s the first step and isn’t sure how many homes could be added.
“Especially for students at the Hearst University which is going to increase, and also trying to get workers from out of town is hard to get them around here due to lack of apartments to stay,” he said.
Lanoix says the town isn’t keen on this type of move.
“Kind of a quick fix,” he said. “We need to act fast for because trying to get the money from the government is not an easy job, so we have people in place who are working really hard on that. Just it would be not a temporary but a quick fix for now.”
In a recent report to town council changes to the zoning by law and official plan would have to be made if the town proceeds with adding more housing downtown.
