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New Dawn Enterprises & the Quest for Affordable Housing

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New Dawn Enterprises & the Quest for Affordable Housing Making Waves, Vol. 7, No. 3 New Dawn Enterprises & the Quest for Affordable Housing (I) THE ANTIGONISH MOVEMENT RANKIN MACSWEEN & JEAN MACPHEE In the 1960s and 1970s it was commonly ew Dawn Enterprises Ltd. is the oldest and one of the most successful believed that every social problem could be solved through the application of ex- community development corporations in Canada. Since 1976, when pertise and money. Government made it Nthe organization was established, one of the key elements of its its business to supply both of these sup- development strategy has been to provide affordable housing. posed critical ingredients. The practices The New Dawn founders judged quality affordable housing to be a fundamen- of this belief system have been disap- pointing and the naivety of this approach tal component of community building. It is interesting that, throughout the 1960s is gradually becoming apparent. In Cape and 1970s, government consultants charged with analyzing the Cape Breton Breton, the early expressions of leadership economy usually felt obliged to comment on the poor quality of the Island’s in the field of social housing did not come housing stock. There seemed to exist a common perspective, both on the part of from government. Rather, these initiatives people living in Cape Breton and by those “from away,” that were community-based. Cape Breton, situ- housing in Cape Breton was a critical issue. After 60 years of ated on the northeastern Over the past 20 years, New Dawn has achieved modest tip of Nova Scotia, is sur- success in its task of delivering affordable accommodation. In government efforts to rounded by the waters of large measure, however, New Dawn’s success is accountable to the Atlantic Ocean and close the gap between the Northumberland its opportunity to function in partnership with both the provincial “economic” & “mar- Strait. For most of this and federal government. century, steel and coal ket” rent, organiza- have dominated the Is- In Canada there has been a long stand- Our purpose is to ex- land’s economy. The leg- ing gap between economic rent (the rent amine the implications tions like New Dawn acy of that domination required to cover the costs associated of this predicament in includes thousands of with the construction and operation of a three articles for Making face the prospect of company houses which unit) and market rent (the rent people can Waves. This first install- were build by the em- afford to pay). Over the past 60 years, the ment is a historical over- delivering affordable ployer and, during dur- federal government, through Canada view, revisiting the ing the first half of the Mortgage and Housing Corporation beginnings of commu- housing without the century, rented to the (CMHC) and the Province of Nova Sco- nity-based social hous- benefit of a public steel and coal workers. tia, through its Department of Housing, ing in Cape Breton. The New Dawn’s housing in- operated a host of programs intended to second article will serve sector partner. itiative is rooted in the fill this “gap.” Unfortunately, one out- as a description of the philosophy of the An- come of government’s deficit reduction housing programming that New Dawn tigonish Movement, particularly the first policy is that these programs have been carried out over the past 20 years. The co-op housing program launched by Fa- collapsed. Organizations such as New final article will speak to the challenge ther Jimmy Tompkins in Reserve Mines, Dawn now face the prospect of attempting the organization now faces as it attempts Cape Breton. For many Cape Bretoners, to deliver affordable housing without the to deliver affordable housing without the the first hope of home ownership coin- benefit of a public sector partner. benefit of a public sector partner. cided with the arrival of Father Jimmy 9 Making Waves, Vol. 7, No. 3 Tompkins as parish priest at Saint Joseph’s it’s going to mean a lot to the future of per house was about $850. By 1967, cost church in Reserve Mines in 1935. co-operative housing. If you do it right, per home had multiplied tenfold. Several years before, Father Tomp- we’ll have co-operative housing groups all At the same time, house construction kins and Father Moses Coady had over this country. We had that in mind - was by no means immune to the processes launched what was to become known that we were going to do it right for the of specialization that characterize the lat- around the world as the Antigonish Move- future” (Cape Breton Magazine, 1976). ter half of this century. For instance, for ment. Tompkins and Coady believed that the first projects, house basements were economic and social development could dug manually and concrete was mixed and be best achieved if the university was For a host of reasons, Cape poured by hand. In time, it became more brought to the people. Through a pro- Breton lacks the level of efficient to hire a machine to do the dig- gram of study and group discussion, peo- ging and to use ready-mix concrete. The ple could come to understand the issues economic vitality or social value of the members’ sweat equity was underlying their situation and take cor- on a spiral of gradual decline. rective action. Coady summarized the es- infrastructure appropriate CANADA MORTGAGE & sential thrust of the movement in the HOUSING CORPORATION words, “Life is synonymous with the re- to a community of its size. alization of possibilities . .” When The first federal legislation attending to Tompkins arrived in Reserve mines he is For the past 100 years, almost the issue of housing was the 1935 Domin- reported to have found “. company ion Housing Act. Then, in 1944, Parlia- houses without basements, substandard all its important decisions have ment passed the National Housing Act shanties, spotty employment, and men which stated that the government of Can- made dissolute and desperate” (Boyle been made elsewhere. ada, “. may act to stimulate and support 1953). Tompkins decided that some- housing, while not assuming direct re- thing would have to be done. The official opening of the first housing sponsibility which is constitutionally allo- He immediately set about organizing project was August 13, 1938. The houses, cated to other levels of government.” study groups, one outcome of which was each consisting of at least six rooms and a This was followed in 1945 by the creation the first co-operative housing group in bath, were considered well-constructed, of the Central Mortgage and Housing Canada. It is important to note that al- designed by the owners to meet their fami- Corporation (later renamed Canada though Nova Scotia had passed its first lies’needs - quite an accomplishment for Mortgage and Housing Corporation.) housing act in 1932 the impact was lim- families with limited income, no carpentry which was charged with responsibility for ited. Tompkins and his students in Re- experience apart from construction work in administering federal housing legislation. serve successfully lobbied the Province to the mine, and a long history of negative On the basis of these early federal change the provisions of the act so as to experiences with government. Moreover, enactments, 50,000 housing units were allow self builders acting co-operatively these first co-op members did indeed “do constructed for war workers, veterans, to take advantage of the provincial mort- it right.” By 1971, 5500 new co-op houses and their families. While this veterans gage program. Essentially, one mortgage had been built. program terminated in 1949, it was re- was issued to the co-operative. The mem- As the program grew and developed, placed with legislation authorizing joint bers bore collective responsibility for the much changed. For example, while in- federal-provincial participation in public mortgage liability. In addition, the “sweat itially mortgages were held corporately by housing projects. Over the next 25 years, equity” provided by the membership was the membership, co-op members were further federal legislation was passed and credited as the mortgage downpayment. eventually required to assume personal existing regulations amended so as to pro- After securing these legislative responsibility for their loan. In 1953, the vide for an array of national housing pro- changes, the group studied and worked province signed an agreement with the grams. During the period 1945-69, 49% of for two years on the first housing project. federal government whereby the latter the entire Canadian housing stock was They were well aware that they were contributed 75% of the mortgage funds constructed, the highest ratio of new making history. Joe Laben, one of the for the program. In addition, the cost of housing additions in the western world. group members reported that, “Father construction escalated. The material costs Over one third of the almost three million Jimmy and Father Coady said that what- for each of the first co-op homes averaged dwellings built during that time received ever you fellows do in the housing group, $1650 and value of the contributed labour CMHC support. 10 Making Waves, Vol. 7, No. 3 In 1968 the Trudeau government of the personal or community stigma social infrastructure appropriate to a com- launched a federal task force “On Hous- which tends to befall people who receive munity of its size. For the past 100 years, ing and Urban Development” to explore direct subsidies through public housing almost all important decisions about the the national housing shortage, particu- and other such programs.” Island have been made elsewhere. Al- larly in the urban areas of the country. though most modern institutions have a CED AS CAPACITY BUILDING Chaired by the Honourable Paul Hellyer, presence on the Island - business, finan- Minister responsible for CMHC, the task The fact that few groups were taking ad- cial, government, religious, educational, force also included Cape Breton’s own Dr.
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