N.S. news: Tiny home community opens in Lower Sackville [Video]

As the flurries fly in Lower Sackville, N.S., the winter chill is slightly less harsh for tenants in the tiny home community.

That’s because for some, affording the rental market isn’t an option.

“I would never be able to,” says Sharon MacDonald, the community’s first tenant.

After moving out of a long-term rental in June due to bullying in her building, she ultimately had nowhere else to go.

“I pitched a tent in Mira Gut. And the first night I lay there, and I couldn’t get up, so I emptied out my car, decided to try to sleep in the back of that, and my back and my knees wouldn’t tolerate that,” she said.

The tiny home community is one of the initiatives funded by the province in response to the homelessness crisis, at a $9-million construction cost, with nearly $1 million in annual operations funding.

The 60 units are a partnership between …