Latest news with #CommunityFirst
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Site confirmed for potential new £100k sports area in town
The location of where a new £100,000 sports facility could be built has been announced, as planning permission is sought out. The decision to try and build a Multi Use Sports Area (known as a MUSA) in Royal Wootton Bassett was first announced in June 2025, when town councillors resolved to turn this idea into a reality. The MUSA would include a hard court and fenced area, providing the space for a variety of sports to be played, including football, hockey, basketball and more. According to councillors, it's been a "long-term aim" of the council, and now further steps have been taken to get the ball rolling. One month on from the town council's decision to pursue this, a location and cost for the proposed sports area has been confirmed. Here's how the sports area could look if plans get the green light (Image: Royal Wootton Bassett Town Council) If planning permission is approved, Royal Wootton Bassett Town Council hopes to build the MUSA on Showfield Park, using a £90,000 grant secured from Community First, as well as 10 per cent of the council's own contribution from the Community Infrastructure Levy funds. "Following feedback from residents, the town council will be installing the MUSA at our Showfield Park and believes this new investment to the park will be welcomed by the local community," said a spokesperson for Royal Wootton Bassett Town Council. "The MUSA will create an accessible, free-to-access site, supporting one of the Town Council's emerging objectives, Healthy and Safe in Bassett." The Town Council has also confirmed it is working closely with Scarrott's Fun Fair, which is based on the Showfield, to ensure minimal impact to the running of the fair. Showfield Park could become home to the town's first MUSA (Image: Google Maps) In order for work on the MUSA to begin, Royal Wootton Bassett Town Council must now apply for planning permission and secure the green light from Wiltshire Council. Members of the community including local schools and Rise Trust Youth Club will also be contacted to help shape the sports area in a way that will best benefit young people in the town. Recommended reading: Progress made in project to bring fast food chain to town centre Fears over smell from planned food waste facility addressed Road closure halted amid 'unacceptable' 14-mile diversion Already, residents from across town have taken to social media to have their say on the plans. Commenters have called this "fantastic news" and "a brilliant idea", with some raising questions about why a location for a town skatepark can't be found so easily. It comes after years of campaigns for the skatepark - an idea which the town council said it supported in 2023 but struggled to find a suitable location for. Responding to the concerns, chief officer Mark Hopkins clarified: "The rules on where to put a skatepark are very different, and Showfield is not a suitable location from the assessment work I commissioned. "We do have a skatepark working group with residents."
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
The Cosmos return – with a new home, new league and old ideals
There's a new New York Cosmos in town – in the town of Paterson, New Jersey, to be precise. One of the most storied names in American soccer has hit the reset button, finding a new league, a new city and a refreshed, community-first approach. While many high-profile new teams in US sports are parachuted in at the top of their league's hierarchy, this Cosmos revival feels different – some of that by design, some by necessity. Thursday's announcement at the newly restored Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson offered longtime fans and curious onlookers a glimpse into this fresh direction, and the reasons behind it. Advertisement The message was clear in the location alone: nestled above the Great Falls of the Passaic River, embedded in a National Historical Park. It's echoed in the club's starting point – USL League One, the third and lowest tier of professional soccer in the US – a more stable launchpad from which to build organically. And perhaps most significantly, this iteration of the Cosmos finally has a home stadium to call its own – characterful, scenic, historic – something previous, more nomadic versions never had. Two major themes run parallel through this reboot. The first is rooted in Paterson itself: a proudly local but cosmopolitan city, where the new Cosmos aim to foster grassroots involvement not just in soccer but in a wide range of activities. The second is the name. Despite years of dormancy and false starts, the New York Cosmos remain one of the most recognisable brands in American soccer. Its association with Pelé helped cement that global profile, and further star power – Franz Beckenbauer, Giorgio Chinaglia, Carlos Alberto – ensured it endured. But this version wants to be more than a brand; it aims to be a club in the truest sense, something still rare in the franchise-heavy landscape of American sports. The plan includes a professional women's team and space for other sports and community activities, from rugby and cricket to dance and chess. Like traditional sporting institutions around the world – the Clube de Regatas of Brazil or European multisport clubs – the new Cosmos will not be just a soccer team. Advertisement 'This is the perfect community for it,' Cosmos CEO Erik Stover tells the Guardian. 'It's so diverse, with people from all over the world and diverse interests, so it makes perfect sense here. 'Proper clubs have multiple sports. People from the community are volunteering, helping with the cricket club, the track club, the tennis club, whatever it is. 'For us, professional soccer will be at the top of the pyramid. But what really matters is that grassroots foundation.' The team will retain the official name New York Cosmos, but with its identity deeply rooted in Paterson, it will often be referred to simply as the Cosmos. Advertisement 'The aim is community first,' says Stover. 'To build sustainably, to invest in local people – whether that's players or front office – and to grow slowly and deliberately.' Finding a home stadium in the New York metropolitan area is no easy feat – which is why so many 'New York' teams, including the Red Bulls and both NFL franchises, play across the Hudson in New Jersey. For the Cosmos, Hinchliffe isn't just a home – it's central to the club's revival. New majority owner and chairperson Baye Adofo-Wilson, a Paterson native who led the stadium's redevelopment, spoke of creating pathways to the professional game at a time when soccer has become increasingly pay-to-play. 'More superstars are going to come out of Paterson, Passaic County, North Jersey, who will lead future generations,' he said at the unveiling. 'We want people to be able to afford this. When I was growing up, a lot of these sports were free – but they no longer are. Advertisement 'Often kids don't have access. What we really want to do is make sure we have a club that's affordable for kids, but also exciting and dynamic – reflective of the diversity of North Jersey. A lot of people are running away from diversity at this point. We're going to run toward it.' There may not yet be stars on the field, but there is one in the front office: Giuseppe Rossi, the former Italy international and North Jersey native, is both investing in the club and serving as Head of Soccer. 'He's lived it,' says Stover. 'If he didn't have that Italian passport that let him go to Europe at 12 – and he was stuck in Clifton, New Jersey, dealing with pay-to-play – who knows? Maybe he doesn't make it to Villarreal, Fiorentina, the Azzurri. 'He understands those challenges better than anyone. He can talk to kids on their level, because he's walked the same path. He made it to the top – and he knows what it takes.' Advertisement For Cosmos fans, there's optimism – even if the team is starting from the bottom. It may be a far cry from the glitzy NASL days of packed stadiums and marquee names, but with the USL planning a promotion and relegation system and a new Division I to run alongside MLS, there's a realistic path for the Cosmos to climb. 'It's not an accident the Cosmos are entering USL now,' says Stover. 'Fifteen years ago, the soccer landscape in this country was very different. Now, USL is working on promotion and relegation – and where that ends up, who knows? 'But what matters is that a club like ours has a path to grow, to compete, to win championships – like we did three times in five years in NASL. 'I've been around the world and spoken to so many sports executives, and I think one big reason soccer in the US isn't where it could be is that we've locked so many communities out of the game. We need to make it more inclusive.' Advertisement Whatever the future holds, fans were simply glad to have their team back. Even after years of inactivity, many never stopped believing. A handful were there at Thursday's announcement, exchanging emotional glances across the room at the Charles J Muth Museum at Hinchliffe Stadium, as New Jersey governor Phil Murphy made it official. The Cosmos are back. And while they may look different this time, their spirit remains unmistakable.
CTV News
07-07-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Housing for health-care workers opens in Nova Scotia's Guysborough County
The housing for healthcare workers complex in Guysborough has eight units and is close to amenities and the Guysborough Memorial Hospital. (Source: Province of Nova Scotia) A housing complex for health-care workers officially opened in Nova Scotia's Guysborough County Monday. The building, which is fully occupied by health-care workers, has eight one or two-bedroom units, a news release from the province said. Nova Scotia spent $2.3 million on the complex, which is located close to the Guysborough Memorial Hospital. 'Our healthcare professionals are committed and hard-working and I am thrilled to welcome them home to Guysborough,' said Greg Morrow, minister of Agriculture and MLA for Guysborough-Tracadie, on behalf of Colton LeBlanc, minister of Growth and Development. 'Because of this housing that was specifically built for them, we've been able to fill critical healthcare positions and recruit new health professionals to our community who otherwise wouldn't have been able to come. This is an exciting day for our community and for our healthcare facilities.' The Housing Trust of Nova Scotia is overseeing the province's housing for health care program. In addition to the project in Guysborough County, housing is planned for Lunenburg, Bridgewater, Port Hawkesbury, Canso, Liverpool and New Glasgow. The province also acquired a six-unit affordable housing project in Boylston, in partnership with the Community First: Guysborough County Housing Association. The Boylston site has five two-bedroom units and one one-bedroom unit ranging from $750 to $850 per month. 'This initiative, which addresses both affordability and housing supply for key workers, will have an ongoing impact in Guysborough, Canso and other communities across the province,' said Angela Bishop, executive director of the Housing Trust of Nova Scotia. The province contributed $627,000 to the project through the Community Housing Acquisition Program and another $13,700 from the province's Community Housing Growth Fund. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
CBC
01-06-2025
- Business
- CBC
More people are being priced out of the housing market. These non-profit groups are trying to help
A couple times a week, Nancy O'Regan or one of her fellow volunteers makes a trip to the Guysborough hardware store. Today, her mission is to pick up four cans of primer and paint in a neutral beige with a creamy eggshell finish. It's all for a renovation at a six-unit building just bought in February by the Community First Guysborough County Housing Association. The building is in Boylston, N.S., a rural area about 270 kilometres from Halifax. O'Regan is chair of the board. "It was pretty exciting," she said of the purchase, which came about six months after the organization officially incorporated. "We were successful against all odds." Community First is now the proud landlord for seven people, offering stable rents at between $800 and $850 a month for one- and two-bedroom apartments — about 60 to 70 per cent of what market rent would be. As Nova Scotia grapples with a shortage of tens of thousands of homes, non-profits are trying to shoulder the load of housing people who've been priced out of the private market. But the high cost of managing their properties means organizations must balance the number of affordable units they offer against long-term sustainability. That's especially challenging for small organizations like Community First, which are depending on volunteers to keep everything running. "I worry about board member burnout," O'Regan said. Without those organizers, meeting the goal of increasing the availability of low-cost housing in her area might not be possible, she said. Sleepless nights over money Community First incorporated in July 2024 because of the deep need for housing in the Guysborough area, which was short at least 300 homes in 2022, according to a provincial needs assessment. That's in an area with a population of roughly 4,600 people. Technically, O'Regan is retired from her job in community development. So are many of the 13 other volunteers on the organization's board. There's no money for the organization to hire an executive director, or even a property manager. Instead, the volunteers take on that work. It's a situation O'Regan said is "not sustainable." In fact, the lack of money for organizational costs almost tanked the deal on the Boylston building. "We had some sleepless nights," she said, recalling a moment when the board realized it needed to find money for an environmental assessment that had to be done before the sale. "I said, if push comes to shove … I'd pull out my credit card," she said. "And the rest of the board members said, 'We're not there yet.'" WATCH | What's the real cost of affordable housing?: Long-term sustainability In the last few years, there's been widespread interest in affordable or non-market housing, and different levels of governments have created programs to help non-profits buy or build homes. In communities across the country, similar groups are stepping in to try to meet the need for affordable housing. But once the non-profits become property owners, long-term financial sustainability is largely up to them. And because non-profits deliberately charge less rent than private landlords, this leaves them with less cash to maintain and grow their organizations. To deal with that, some non-profits choose to charge market rent for some of their units, which subsidizes the low rent in the remaining units. Others opt to make up the difference with labour-intensive fundraising. O'Regan is concerned about this choice; she's worried it might threaten how long Community First can keep going. The organization is currently looking for loans to build more units, so the choice will have to be made soon, O'Regan said. "This is a decision our board is going to be faced with, you know, within the next half year." A pivotal expansion The same decision is facing the volunteer board of the Antigonish Affordable Housing Society. The AAHS already operates 28 units with rents between $640 and $938 a month, utilities included. It houses families and seniors who are unable to afford anywhere else in the competitive university town. But paying the mortgage and the operations costs the AAHS roughly $1,000 a month per unit. "Our operation is not breaking even with the rental income that we have," said Colleen Cameron, the AAHS board chair. "So, that's being supplemented through fundraising and grants." The society is looking forward to opening 17 brand new units on Aug. 1, which will range in rent from between $911 for a one-bedroom to $1,350 for a three-bedroom. Some new two-bedroom townhomes in the area are advertised at upwards of $2,595 a month. Those new units are pivotal, because operating costs like snow removal, maintenance, and property taxes will be split between more apartments. "We're hoping to break even because we're at that level of scale. But our goal is to break even, which is not leaving us any other room or contingencies," Cameron said in a recent interview. "Sustainably, we have to think longer term in the future." They know some of their tenants already have a hard time affording the non-profit apartments, so they're fighting to hold down rents. But as construction costs rise, that's getting harder. The AAHS board members say their construction costs have ballooned from approximately $200 per square foot to $400 per square foot over the last 10 years. They made a decision in mid-May that their next development must charge a higher rent on some of the units in order to subsidize the rest. Cameron said it was a decision the board has been "struggling" with for more than a year. "We cannot build affordable housing and be sustainable without having market rents included. It's just not working out," she said. "We've been working at this for over 10 years, and the writing's on the wall; we have to consider doing a mix and that would be to help support affordable [units] by charging some market rents." The mixed-income model Like all building owners, non-profits are dealing with increasing costs like insurance, electricity, and construction materials, said Trish McCourt, the executive director of the Nova Scotia Non-Profit Housing Association. "Non-profits really don't have any access to anything less expensive than private development does," she told CBC News. "And in some cases, it costs them more because they're not as scalable." Dealing with those costs by charging market rents on some units to subsidize others is called the "mixed-income" model. McCourt said that can lead to healthy neighbourhoods for families of all income levels. "If we build neighbourhoods that are accommodating everyone in the community and what their needs are, it's just better for everyone," she said. "But it will also be better for that development if they're able to count on having some people come in at higher levels of rent." However, under the mixed-income model it takes longer to gather all the affordable units an organization needs. She said that's why some organizations make the "absolutely valid" choice to go a different way. "I understand why some are going to continue to be dedicated to only offering affordable rents, but they will also need to do a lot of other fundraising in order to make that happen," she said. 50-50 split between affordable, market With 295 apartments in the Halifax-Dartmouth area, the Housing Trust of Nova Scotia is one of the largest non-profits in the province. The Trust bought the apartments in 2022 and began extensive renovations while keeping the tenants in place. They do not do renovictions, said executive director Angela Bishop. Right now, about 70 per cent of their units cost either $750 a month for a one-bedroom or $860 for two bedrooms. However, the Trust's operating expenses can be at least $400 per unit a month, plus a monthly mortgage Bishop said is even more costly. "As interest rates drop, and we're able to refinance at better rates, the picture improves every single day," Bishop said. "But in the meantime, it's the case that those lower [priced] units, if you take them, isolate them just on their own, they do. indeed, lose money." To compensate for this, the trust has increased prices on some units as tenants move out. About 30 per cent of the units cost $1,350 for a one-bedroom and $1,600 for a two-bedroom, which is below the average market rate of $1,707 for a Halifax two-bedroom, listed by the CMHC last fall. "We kind of take an overall look at the buildings," said Bishop. "That's why we want that mixed income model, so we can continue to support people who can only afford to pay $750 a month rent." The goal for the trust is to have 50 per cent affordable units and 50 per cent market units. Bishop said they hope this will leave money to buy more buildings from the private sector and convert them to non-profit status. WATCH | How can we break the cycle of rising house prices: Will we ever break the cycle of rising home prices? | About That 1 year ago Duration 11:19 The federal government has promised to make nearly 3.9 million homes available by 2031. Andrew Chang explains why bringing prices down is so fraught, and how addressing the housing crisis might require a radical shift in how we view home ownership. 'I'm not making a brownie to create housing for people' Back in Guysborough County, Community First is planning to build another six units on the vacant land beside its Boylston building. If the board charged market rent on a few of them it would have more income; other landlords in the Guysborough area are renting for as much as $1,400. But O'Regan is not sold yet on the mixed-income model. "I'm concerned about it because I know we need a lot of affordable housing," O'Regan said. "It means that we have more money in our operating costs, but it's going to take us so much longer to get there if we have to do that." Still, she can't see her board fundraising to make up the difference. They're volunteers who are already working full tilt, and adding more to their duties seems unreasonable. "I'm not making a brownie to create housing for people," she said. The board is exploring all kinds of options for community investment, and O'Regan said she's keeping an open mind on all of them. But she also has a sense that time is short.
BBC News
12-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Peterborough charity plans house to tackle long-term homelessness
A charity refurbishing a house for rough sleepers hopes it will be a "stepping stone" for people struggling with First Peterborough, which began renting the three-bedroom terrace in Millfield earlier this year, hopes it will be ready to welcome its first residents by Saeed from the charity says many rough sleepers in the area have been "stuck on the streets" for more than a decade and may also struggle with alcohol or drug City Council said in its latest homelessness report that there were 24 rough sleepers in the city in 2023, the same as the previous year. The authority said its rough sleeper team "promptly" identified and assessed new individuals on the streets and offered them tailored aim of the Community First Peterborough house is to help people sleeping rough access support services from the council and other organisations such as charities."This is a stepping stone to get them into housing and into rehabilitation services to get them off the streets," said Mr Saeed. The house will be kitted out with CCTV and have an office for a Community First Peterborough staff member to help with application forms and make sure residents are staying on will have a garden for the residents to plant flowers and vegetables, as well as a community room with a table tennis table. Mr Saeed said his charity had been in contact with people who had been sleeping rough for 10 years or thought this was due to a number of different reasons, such as not having any documentation, or mental health issues."We are taking it on board to get those people into a position where they can become recourse to public funds and then be able to avail themselves of housing," he aim is for people to stay in the house for six to 12 months until they can move on to another property, such as supported accommodation with the council. But Mr Saeed says this can be a difficult journey, especially if individuals are struggling to overcome alcohol or drugs addictions."We know in the addiction circles, people will relapse," he added."We're not here to judge who's at what stage, if people relapse that's part of the process and we have to understand and have to be there."The housing charity, Crisis, said prolonged periods of rough sleeping increase the likelihood of somebody experiencing substance misuse issues, describing it as a "dangerous and isolating experience". Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
