Amy Hendricks is an internal medicine doctor who has spent much of her career in the Northwest Territories of Canada, practicing medicine in rural areas and caring for patients where they already are.
When she and her husband, Paul Davie, moved to Antigonish, Nova Scotia, he had a vision to build a medical clinic on the first floor of their new home.
But they struggled to find the perfect plot of land.
“We thought, how hard could it be?” Davie told The Canadian Press. “Then we spent a year or 18 months looking around Antigonish trying to find a place where you feel the click. It needed the right zoning, it needed space for parking.”
Once their realtor found them their dream property on the foot of Sugarloaf Mountain, everything started coming together.
They could put a medical clinic on the main floor and their living quarters right on top. Hendricks could still walk to the nearest hospital.
“It was a no-brainer,” she said.
But after buying 46 acres of land, they quickly realized it was far more than two people needed.
“Paul said, can’t you imagine an affordable housing development here?” Hendricks said.
They connected with Colleen Cameron, the chair of the board of directors for Antigonish Affordable Housing Society. After a benefit concert about three years ago, Hendricks approached Cameron and offered the organization the land.
“It’s a dream for us not-for-profits to receive free land,” Cameron said. “That is a big part of our expenses.”
Now, the forthcoming Sugarloaf development is being designed alongside the AAHS, The Naomi Society, an organization that helps domestic abuse survivors find transitional housing, and Inclusion Canada, which supports people with disabilities.
Each organization was given a parcel of land for development, right next door to Hendricks and Davie. Once complete, it will include housing for disabled individuals, affordable units by AAHS, and transitional housing for people fleeing domestic violence.
“We give huge thanks to Amy Hendricks and Paul Davie, our future neighbors and generous land donors,” a March 2025 Facebook post from AAHS reads.
“AAHS is modelling 54 homes for a first phase of development. This will be a transformative project providing community-supported, high quality, energy-efficient affordable housing, along with supports to tenants to navigate services and facilitate community. Estimated opening is 2027. What an exciting gift!”
So far, the CACL and medical clinic are already in the works, but Hendricks and Davie are anxious to get the rest of the housing built, hoping to fill an urgent need in their rural community.
“We have multiple nursing homes in Antigonish,” Hendricks said. “At the wages people earn from working in a nursing home, they can’t actually live in the community.”
The couple said they also hope to one day add a daycare and corner store in the new community, hoping to provide a walkable and communal area for everyone who lives nearby.
“It’s land we don’t need for ourselves,” Davie said. “It seemed a bit of a waste to just leave it there.”
You may also like: Billionaire buys apartment complex to slash rents for Colorado mountain town workers
Header image: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Amy Hendricks and Paul Davie (Mandatory Credit)
