African Nova Scotian group wants to hear housing challenges for north-end residents

An African Nova Scotian community group brought together several generations of north-end Halifax residents this weekend to discuss housing issues in Black neighbourhoods.

The New Roots Community Land Trust hosted an engagement session at George Dixon Centre Park on Saturday as part of a membership drive. Organizers handed out surveys and gave presentations on initiatives to create more space for Black residents.

"Stats are everything these days," said Treno Morton, who started the New Roots Community Land Trust this year. It represents approximately 30 members from the communities of Uniacke Square and Mulgrave Park. 

Morton organized Saturday's event to gather input from residents. The aim is to present stronger cases to municipal and provincial governments when asking them to give Black residents more power in decisions made about development in their communities.

"So, it's not just me, a community member, voicing their complaints. Like I said, we have the statistics all in one place that I can show them, 'This is what everyone is saying and now you're kind of forced to do something about it.' So that's the main goal of today," he said.  

Many people told Morton they want to have a voice in what happens to local properties like former north-end schools St. Patrick's-Alexandra or Bloomfield. Many families in those communities have ties to Africville, a historic Black community the city of Halifax demolished in the 1960s. 

Bloomfield remains vacant after closing in 2012 while St. Patrick's-Alexandra was sold in 2016 to a developer that plans to build a high rise. 

"Developers from away buying them with no regard for the local context and just building whatever they want, and more often than not it's not something affordable for the community," Morton said.

'Not just the physical space'

Some residents attended the event because they said it was important to support those working to reclaim land for African Nova Scotians. 

Sylvia Parris-Drummond, who has lived in the area since the early 2000s, said it's more than just reclaiming and creating physical space for Black residents, it's the opportunities that come with it. 

Black communities would benefit by having their own space to socialize, build community and tell their own stories, she said.

"If that land was left within our control at the time that we had it, we could have other aspects of socio-economic growth," Parris-Drummond said. "It's not just that physical space that you might map out."

One initiative of the New Roots Community Land Trust is to try to buy a parcel of land in the Cogswell District after the redevelopment project is done in order to build affordable housing, Morton said. 

Not only would there be affordable housing but there would be services and communal gathering spaces such as a church.  

It's just one example of the overall goal of acquiring land in the north end to help Black residents thrive, Morton said. 

"To give us the chance to live in areas we would never live in otherwise, but more so to begin to create systems and programs for the [African Nova Scotian] youth so they can thrive now and in the future," he said.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.

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