The focus of a special council meeting in Brighton Friday was a “new housing initiative.”
However, details are still scarce about the initiative, since the bulk of the meeting was not held in an open session of council.
“We met in-closed to discuss a partnership to help build attainable workforce housing in Brighton and across Northumberland,” said Mayor Brian Ostrander, in response to inquiries around the meeting, and outcomes following the in-camera session.
Ostrander said he couldn’t add any further comment at this stage.
While there’s no confirmation of a link between the meeting on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, and recent work at the county level, there has been work underway to bring to life workforce housing in Northumberland for some time now.
As previously reported, by mid-2025, the Northumberland Workforce Housing Corporation has expressed hopes that some workforce housing will be taking shape and building underway.
This group got started recognizing critical shortages in the labour market and the connection to the housing crisis.
The corporation has not said where housing will be located and in earlier reports, staff stated discussions were ongoing with area municipalities, developers, builders, et cetera.
(Written by: Sarah Hyatt)
