96 Victoria, last years' Community Build Project. (Photo: Courtesy of Saint John Tool Library)
Applications are open for the Saint John toolbox community build.
Brent Harris is the chair of the board for the community build group at the Saint John Tool Library.
“The community build has been running for the past three years, and essentially since we started the tool library, we’ve always had a desire to gather and engage in communities and neighbourhoods who are struggling with run-down housing,” he said.
The community build is intended to help engage communities who are struggling with rundown housing.
“It’s just an example of what the potential is for a community of people who want to come together and tackle some of these problems head-on and take matters into our own hands, rather than just waiting for some developer to come along and do the work or the government to come along and tear the building down,” he said.
Harris said the builds themselves will take place in the spring. Applications are open for those landlords or tenants who don’t have the money to make essential repairs.
“So many homes that people have are kind of on that cusp where if they go much longer, they are going to have to be torn down or they are going to encounter major problems but you can catch them at the right time and put in an amount of work that can get them back to a certain state,” he said.
Harris said applications will be accepted until the board meets in November to determine what projects will be chosen before the end of December.
He said there may be the possibility to do a build in the summer as well as the spring.
Harris said they’re also looking for investors and volunteers.
