Bridgewater Mayor David Mitchell says his town has been working hard over many years to collect information on housing. 

So it wasn't a shock when he learned the South Shore town had a shortage of 245 homes, as of the end of 2022. 

"It's a lot of people who are looking to live in our community that will have to wait," he told CBC in a recent interview. 

Bridgewater is just one of many Nova Scotian municipalities facing a gap of hundreds — and in some cases, thousands — of new housing units. 

That i…