As Saint John stares down a lengthy list of vacant buildings headed for demolition, one group is pitching a way to save some of them from the wrecking ball.
The Community Build project is looking to bring together volunteers and members of the community to try and save some of those buildings, and in the process serve the public good.
“Community Build is an initiative with the Saint John Tool Library that we started back in June of 2018,” said Brent Harris, founder of the Saint John Tool Library and the Community Build.
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Harris, who has spent time studying community development, says he began to formulate the idea because of the derelict buildings he was constantly seeing around town.
“We knew that seeing those broken windows, seeing those kicked-in doors, those boarded-up houses was just poisoning the story of our neighbours and their own narrative in the community,” he said, “and it came across as a place to escape and not a place to try to live and hang your hat and fix up and do anything positive with.
“If we can inspire a movement, sort of like this barn-raising idea of people who can just get together, work on each other’s homes and bring a lot of people together, connect people and restore and revitalize the face of our, you know, buildings, and the interiors as much as we can, then that’s going to start moving that needle.”
In some ways, the project targets neighbourhood perception and presentation, believing that pride and positivity in a community is a strong first step in combating social issues.
Harris cites the Broken Window Theory as an influence, where disorder, represented by vacant buildings and the broken windows that give the theory its name, “creates fear in the minds of citizens who are convinced that the area is unsafe.” The perception of danger, so the theory posits, leads to decreased social cohesion and allows more serious forms of crime to become the norm.
“We always say don’t judge a book by its cover, and that’s all nice and good, but the reality is when that’s what you see the messaging you’re being bombarded with is bad, dangerous, negative, how can people end up acting out through crime and through all sorts of negative issues?” he said.
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There are approximately 200 vacant or badly damaged properties on Saint John’s watch list, which the city is trying to tear down as rapidly as possible. In 2018, 33 buildings were demolished and another 44 were repaired, surpassing the city’s target of 75 buildings for the year.
But rather than see these buildings torn down, Harris wants to see them turned into assets that can help alleviate other issues faced by the port city like lack of affordable housing. He believes that by cultivating a “barn-raising” culture, where members of the community volunteer to pitch in for the benefit of the neighbourhood, the group could start to make an impact.
“Instead of tearing a building down, we revitalize it, turn it into a livable space. Partner with someone like a housing co-op and get some of these people who are on crazy long NB housing wait-list in to housing,” he said, adding that the “sweat equity” system used by Habitat for Humanity could even be used to allow people to become stake-holders in these buildings.
The group has already done it once, helping a family of five make extensive repairs to their home. The family was able to provide the materials but the labour, which Harris says is often double, if not triple the cost, came from a group of about 20 volunteers.
Kevin Standing, who sits on the board of the Community Build, calls the idea the “second phase of urban renewal.”
“We take the some of these buildings that have what we call good bones, strip them down to their bare necessities and build them back up and instead of using new materials use the stuff that we already have and start making vacancies for the large number of people who don’t have homes,” he said.
The group is looking to undertake one community build a year for the next few years, which Harris says also provides education opportunities for volunteers, on top of the work being done. During the first build they put on classes at the library to teach volunteers some basics and even how to hang windows.
On Monday night, the group gave a presentation to Common Council about the plan, hoping the city can help connect them with like-minded groups who may be interested in partnering.
“Getting connected to the housing, that’s a big part. We have no idea how even how to solve that,” he said.
“Our hope was, in presenting to city council… to say we’re here, we’ve shown it can be done, here’s our crew, where can we go from here on these buildings that as a community we just don’t know what to do with.”
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While vacant and unsightly buildings dot the entire city, the Old North End has a particularly large number of abandoned lots. Ward two councillor John MacKenzie says he’s all for the idea, and would like to start introducing the concept to the community.
“I think it’s a great idea. It reminds me of the old days when everybody would get together to build a barn … and I think in a community like this it would go over really well,” he said.
“Step one would be to inform the public what they do, what they’d like to do and then get feedback from the public in terms of who’s interested in working with them.”
To this point MacKenzie has been a large proponent of demolishing as many of the buildings as possible, stating that no developer is going to want to build across the street from an abandoned and heavily graffitied building, but would like to see some of these older buildings be saved.
“If there’s a building that can be saved then that’s the way to go, especially in a city like Saint John,” he said.