GUYSBOROUGH — Caught between rising needs and limited means, Guysborough County’s only community-based housing group will receive $80,000 in municipal funding over the next four years to help keep its doors open and projects moving.
The Municipality of the District of Guysborough (MODG) has committed $20,000 a year to Community First: Guysborough County Housing Association, giving the volunteer-run non-profit a firm license to advance its mission of finding affordable places for local people to live at a time of growing need.
The funding motion passed at council’s committee of the whole meeting (COTW) July 2 and will be formalized in a revised general-government grant policy slated for final adoption on Wednesday, July 16. Money for the group – which recently purchased its first property, a six-unit apartment building in Boylston – will come from the municipality’s operating reserve.
“This is providing some funding to address housing ... and we’re supporting the basic guaranteed income for people,” Warden Paul Long told The Journal after the meeting. “If they [Community First] can make decisions based on an income [and] they know they have it coming every year, then that makes life a little bit easier for them.”
The COTW motion followed a brief debate, during which councillors heard from staff about Community First’s financial condition, including a proposed budget from the group that predicted a razor-thin surplus of $1,751 for the fiscal year ending March 2026, based on a $25,000 grant from the MODG.
Councillors broadly agreed that the group needed more than the amounts – as low as $15,000 –that were available the municipality’s grants policy.
“I think [even] $17,000 is not enough for them,” District 2 Councillor Mary Desmond, who sits on the association’s board as an at-large member, said during the meeting. “It’s just too low, and they would need a little bit more because they don’t have any other income besides what is actually coming in from the Boylston apartments, and [those are] just making it … just barely [breaking] even. If they have any outstanding expenses, then they’re in deep trouble.”
District 4 Councillor Dave Hanhams added: “This organization is tackling something that is a need for the entire county, all districts. It is very important that they’re able to have some funding to do what they need to. Twenty [thousand] is fine with me. I’d even go to 25.”
For Community First, incorporated in 2024, the decision marks a critical turning point.
“Twenty-five is … sort of what we had forecasted in the budget we gave them,” spokesperson Nancy O’Regan said in an interview with The Journal last week. “But, you know, twenty will work, and this means we still can go back to council for capital funding.”
Even at $20,000 a year, the multi-year commitment is “absolutely vital,” she added. “There is no operating funds for small non-profit housing organizations … It’s been a struggle. We got through it using a lot of volunteer time and capacity, but this will allow us to be able to do the work that we need to do for future projects and also maintain the organization and build it. Overall, it will make a tremendous difference in what we can accomplish.”
O’Regan said the grant will help cover operating essentials that are otherwise hard to fund. “At this point, we’re sinking any profit from that building back into that [Boylston] building,” she explained. “Every cent we have is going into fixing it up and trying to get it to where we feel comfortable that folks living there have what they need.”
With the new funding, “We could now take advantage of employment programs [and] pay for our portion of having a staff person ... It gives us money to be able to hire consultants when we need them to get our projects up and running.”
It will also allow the group to resume its community outreach. “We often go to Sherbrooke. We want to do work in Canso and Mulgrave. We have meetings planned in Larry’s River. We’ve had no money for travel, no money for venues, no money for coffee. It’s some of the everyday organizational funds that will keep us going while we’re developing projects.”
Long said the funding fits with council’s broader goals. “It really was driven home, when one [participant at Strait of Canso Superport Days, June 26-27] said one of the key things the province is looking to do is raise the average income,” he said. “And, you know, we’ve got a number of projects on the go that can add to that process.”
While Community First continues to rely heavily on volunteer efforts, O’Regan said the grant sends a clear signal to other potential funders. “It validates that the municipality is a partner that sees our value. I think that’s really important. We can work for the next four years as hard as we can to build housing without having to worry about our day-to-day existence.”
Council also voted to provide the Transit Association of Guysborough with $20,000 annually for the next four years—matching the Community First commitment—with funds to come from the same operating reserve once the updated grant policy is approved July 16.
