By Richard Bell
Jessie Greenough already has a well-deserved reputation as a serial non-profit entrepreneur, having guided MusGo River to become one of the province’s most successful rural transportation provider. The provincial government recognized this success, asking Greenough to set up another non-profit offering the same service out of Sheet Harbour and the Musquodoboit Valley.
Now Greenough has decided to expand MusGo River’s mission to take on an entirely different community problem, building housing that will allow people with intellectual disabilities to continue living on the Eastern Shore.
“One of the main reasons is because I have a son who will need this housing,” Greenough said in an interview at MusGo’s office in Porters Lake. “I also see the need from what we do now at MusGo Rider. We’ve been driving people with intellectual disabilities for years, and we’ve seen some who’ve been forced to leave the area to get supportive housing in the city.”
Greenough has heard plenty of stories about the deep concerns of parents and grandparents about the future of the children they’re now caring for. “We have one lady who’s now in her 70s, who tells me ‘I’m just so glad when I wake up every morning because I don’t know what’s going to happen to my son if I die.’ And there’s some grandparents, you know they really should have been able to rest now, relax and enjoy life, and it’s hard for them, they’re stressed because they don’t know what’s going to happen to their grandson.”
If a parent or grandparent caregiver dies, the province would find a home for their child. Greenough worries about the trauma such dramatic changes would cause. “Suddenly their only support is gone, they’ve ripped from the only home they’ve ever known, and find themselves living with people they don’t know.”
The recent increase in government funding for housing of all types peaked Greenough’s interest. “Until recently, the opportunity just wasn’t there,” she said. “There wasn’t even a process to become a service provider.”
With the help of HRM Councillor David Hendsbee, Greenough found a nearby piece of HRM property. “The city has no plans to use this land, and it’s within a kilometer of our office here, so it would be easy for us to manage it.” Greenough started what she now thinks will be a five-year process in April of 2022, and got DCS certification as a service provider in December of 2022.
The largest building MusGo can build is a four-bedroom house. The Department of Community Services pays for staffing, three shifts a day, so there are always staff in the house. “DCS pays a per diem for each person to cover all of the expenses, from staff to groceries to heat,” Greenough said. Getting funds for building a house is a hurdle, but “housing is the cheapest cost of the whole project. Staffing is ongoing. Let’s say you’ve got a mortgage for $2,000 a month. That won’t even cover the cost of a single staff person working a 40-hour week.”
Greenough would like for all such housing to be run by nonprofits. “As a non-profit, our goal would be to break even. There are for-profit houses, but I do not agree with that. At the end of the day, for-profits are supposed to earn a profit.”
Advice for Parents: Sign Up Today!
Greenough hopes that enough people on the shore will ask for a group home. “To me, the next step is making sure that every person on the Eastern Shore who wants their child with intellectual disabilities to live independently gets their child's name on the list for housing. And when you sign up, ask for Musgo Rider to be the service provider. We need to show DCS that there’s a real need, that we need help on the Eastern Shore. DCS needs to know that there’s more than two or three people asking.” And if there’s a need for more than 4 beds, Greenough has a simple solution: “We’ll just build another house!”
To get your child or dependent on the list, contact your case worker at DCS.