SPRE National Accelerator Spotlight:
A Roof Over Your Head

A Roof Over Your Head is a community-based organization located in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, focused on supporting individuals and households to secure safe, accessible, and affordable housing. The organization provides direct assistance with housing applications, helps clients navigate income supports and community resources, and works closely with a range of local and regional partners. Its work also includes advocacy related to tenancy issues, eviction prevention, and education for both tenants and landlords on rights and responsibilities under the Residential Tenancies Act. Through this service-based approach, A Roof Over Your Head addresses housing insecurity at the point where people are most at risk of losing or being unable to secure housing.

Housing insecurity in rural Nova Scotia presents distinct and persistent challenges. Government data and peer-reviewed research indicate that rural regions experience limited rental supply, aging housing stock, and rising construction and maintenance costs, alongside lower average incomes and fewer available services. Emergency shelters and transitional housing are often absent outside urban centres, leaving individuals and families with few local options when housing loss occurs. In communities surrounding Antigonish, people experiencing housing precarity may be forced to rely on temporary arrangements, travel long distances to access shelter, or remain in unsafe or overcrowded housing situations.

Rural housing insecurity is also frequently undercounted. Research shows that rural homelessness often takes less visible forms, such as couch-surfing or extended stays in inadequate housing, making it harder to capture through traditional enumeration methods. The lack of nearby emergency housing can exacerbate these conditions, increasing the duration and severity of housing instability. For many rural residents, relocation to urban centres to access shelter or services is not a viable option, as it disrupts social networks, employment, caregiving responsibilities, and connections to place.

A Roof Over Your Head’s proposed project emerges from this context. While the organization does not currently own or operate housing, it is working to translate its frontline experience into the development of emergency and supportive housing serving rural Nova Scotia. The project, now in the pre-development phase, aims to create locally grounded housing options that respond to immediate crises while supporting pathways toward longer-term stability. This shift from service delivery to housing development reflects an effort to address structural gaps in the rural housing system rather than relying solely on downstream interventions.
The organization’s broader work informs this approach. Through eviction prevention, tenancy advocacy, and housing navigation, A Roof Over Your Head has developed a detailed understanding of how people move into housing insecurity and where systems fail to intervene effectively. This knowledge shapes the proposed housing model, which is envisioned as part of a continuum that includes prevention, stabilization, and connection to ongoing supports. Rather than functioning as an isolated asset, the housing is intended to complement existing community services and partnerships.

A Roof Over Your Head’s work in Antigonish and surrounding rural communities highlights the critical role that service-based organizations can play in shaping new housing responses. By leveraging advocacy, tenant support, and systems knowledge to inform housing development, the organization offers a model for rural housing innovation that is grounded in lived experience and local conditions. For planners, architects, and researchers, the project underscores the importance of place-specific approaches to housing insecurity and the value of community-led pathways from service provision to built solutions.