Preston Area Housing Fund receives $3.5M in provincial money

The province announced on Monday $3.5 million will be given to the Preston Area Housing Fund to support community-owned housing opportunities.

A new memorandum of understanding will launch talks on transferring up to 50 provincially-owned housing units in African Nova Scotian communities to the Preston Area Housing Fund, said Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister John Lohr at a news conference in North Preston.

The housing units under consideration are in Cherry Brook-Lake Loon, North Preston, East Preston and Westphal.

“African Nova Scotian communities and organizations need to be partners at the table directly involved on issues that affect us, expressly issues like community housing,” said Dwayne Provo, associate deputy minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs, at the conference. “Today is a step in the right direction, a step to try to get a new beginning.”

But it is not the first step, said Provo. He said the Preston Area Housing Fund has been fighting for progress on affordable and accessible housing for 52 years.

“It’s been a long hard road,” said Oliver Bruce Johnson, chair of the non-profit. “You may see tears running from my eyes because it is true, many of us suffered.”

The provincial housing units in question came into the communities about 52 years ago and were promising at the time, said Johnson, but from then on the organization was given a maximum of $40,000 per year, not nearly enough funding to maintain the units and pay wages.

“For working on the board for over 10 years, with $40,000 going down to $15,000 [funding per year] hasn’t been easy,” said Dolly Williams, former chair of the Preston Area Housing Fund. “You cannot function and build houses with $15,000 a year.”

The province said the new money will be allocated to the Preston Area Housing Fund to do necessary repairs, maintain community-owned housing units and pay wages.

For the board, this is a plus, said Williams. “I’m really excited — it’s long overdue.”

Johnson said the Preston Area Housing Fund aims to revamp operations to function more efficiently. 

The province is considering other communities where the same approach might work but didn’t provide specifics on when or where.

“We’re hoping that, from what we do on our Preston board, people will be getting to know that we can do things for ourselves and we can improve,” said Johnson. “We can also set the stage for other communities to learn and follow in our footsteps.”