How volunteers are transforming the former Pinecrest school into a new model of affordable seniors’ housing and community life
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There are buildings that disappear when their original purpose ends. Their doors close, the heat is lowered, the roof begins to deteriorate, and a place that once carried the daily life of a community gradually becomes an expensive problem.
Then there are buildings that are given another chance.
The former Pinecrest Memorial Elementary School in Bloomfield is one of those places. For decades, children learned in its classrooms, ran through its corridors and gathered in its gymnasium. When the school closed in June 2017 and was declared surplus, it could easily have become another abandoned public building awaiting sale, demolition or years of deterioration.¹
A group of residents connected to Emmanuel Baptist Church imagined something better. They saw classrooms that could become homes, a gymnasium that could remain a gathering place and a former school that might allow older residents to remain in Prince Edward County rather than leave when their own homes were no longer affordable, safe or manageable.
The initiative was originally known as LoveSong Seniors Housing and Community Hub. It is now called Pinecrest Housing, a name that reconnects the project to the building remembered by generations of County families. The name has changed, the plans have evolved and progress has taken far longer than anyone first hoped. But the central vision remains intact: to transform an empty school into affordable homes where seniors can live independently, remain connected to others and continue contributing to the community around them.²
It is an ambitious project. It is also a remarkable example of what determined local people can accomplish before the major funders arrive.
An Idea Born From Seeing People Forced to Leave
The story began before the former school became available.
Ken How, a former educator and the project’s longtime facilitator, has explained that the idea emerged after members of the church saw older County residents selling their homes and then discovering that they could not find appropriate and affordable places to live locally. Some were forced to leave Prince Edward County. Others moved into housing that did not meet their needs.³
Members of Emmanuel Baptist Church began considering whether an affordable co-housing model could offer a better alternative. When LoveSong held its first major public meeting at Bloomfield Town Hall in January 2018, a full house came to hear the vision. The initial proposal contemplated approximately 50 affordable units for seniors in a repurposed building.²
How provided much of the public momentum, but the idea was never presented as one person’s project.
Joy Vervoort helped explain the philosophy behind it. Co-housing, she said, was not simply about placing people in small apartments. It was about sharing a community with neighbours who know and care about one another. It was also about recognizing that seniors retain knowledge, skills and a desire to remain useful.²
The proposed residence was not intended to be a nursing home, long-term-care facility or conventional retirement residence. It was designed for seniors who could continue living independently, but who might benefit from a safer physical environment, shared amenities, nearby supports and the presence of a real community around them. Residents would have their own private suites while also having access to spaces for recreation, meals, hobbies, meetings and social connection.²
From the beginning, the project attempted to address two problems at once: the shortage of affordable seniors’ housing and the isolation that can accompany aging.
Its founders understood that a home is more than a unit count.
It is also the life that becomes possible inside and around it.
Saving a School by Preserving Its Community Purpose
Pinecrest was unusually well suited to adaptive reuse. The former school sits on approximately 20 acres at 27 Corey Street in Bloomfield. Early plans envisioned converting its classrooms into compact residential suites while preserving common facilities and community uses.⁴
The vision retained much of the school’s original social function. The gymnasium could continue to support recreation, fitness classes, theatre, meetings and cultural activities. Other spaces could be used for hobbies, community organizations and shared gatherings. The grounds could accommodate gardens, a farmers’ market and a walking trail.⁵
That continuity is part of what makes the project so compelling. Pinecrest was built as a place where people learned, met and belonged. Its new purpose would be different, but its deeper community function would remain.
The County helped secure the property after the school board declared it surplus. The municipality purchased the former school and later transferred it to the LoveSong initiative for $375,000. When the keys were formally handed over in October 2020, How emphasized that the acquisition money had been raised through community donations.⁴
The project’s current public materials state that more than 8,000 volunteer hours have been contributed and more than $1 million has been raised.⁶ Those numbers convey the scale of the effort, but not its full character. They do not show the people clearing old classrooms, removing fixtures, organizing fundraising events, preparing applications, maintaining the grounds, attending municipal meetings or continuing to advocate for the project through years of delay.
The People Who Kept It Alive
Ken How has been the project’s most visible advocate. He has spoken before Council, met with potential partners and funders, explained the concept to the media and continued advancing the initiative through setbacks that might have ended a less determined effort.
In 2019, when the project had stalled and still lacked the partnerships and funding required to proceed, How acknowledged the frustration but refused to abandon the idea. He described the effort as a marathon in which the visible running represented only part of the work; the preparation and persistence made the journey possible.³
That persistence deserves recognition. Community projects are often celebrated when a ribbon is cut. Far less attention is given to the years in which there is no ceremony, no construction crane and no certainty that the vision will ever be completed.
Joy Vervoort helped establish the project’s co-housing philosophy and explain why community mattered as much as accommodation. Donna Rodgers became another persistent contributor and public representative. John Uings, Paul Robinson, Andy Spry and numerous other volunteers helped with the physical, financial and organizational work needed to move the project forward.⁷
The project’s current team also includes people with experience in community service, medicine, administration, housing and development. Pinecrest identifies How as chair of its operations working group, Donna Rodgers as secretary and Fitwel ambassador, and Desmond Norris as treasurer, among others.⁸
The work extended far beyond meetings and plans.
During the summer of 2021, volunteers cleared blackboards, cupboards and other fixtures from the former classrooms. Five students hired through the Canada Summer Jobs program contributed approximately 1,300 hours. Materials were reused, donated, recycled or removed as the interior was prepared for redevelopment.⁷
Local businesses and tradespeople also stepped forward. Picton Home Hardware’s Adam Busscher donated a new steel roof for the community pavilion, and the work was installed by Harlan and Dominick of Brough Roofing.⁷
These contributions may seem modest beside a multimillion-dollar construction budget. In reality, they reveal what the project is made of.
People gave time, materials, expertise and labour before anyone could promise that the building would ever open.
They acted because the need was real and because waiting for someone else had already become part of the problem.
A Broader Partnership Takes Shape
As the project became more complex, Pinecrest partnered with Springale Development, represented publicly by Phil Spry, to bring additional development and affordable-housing expertise. The former LoveSong organization and Springale worked through the financial, planning, design and construction issues involved in converting a large institutional building into residential accommodation.⁹
The municipality approved a fee-waiver agreement in 2024 involving Pinecrest Housing and Springale Development for the Corey Street property. The agreement reflected the County’s willingness to support the redevelopment while protecting the public interest and the project’s affordable-housing purpose.¹⁰
The Pinecrest property was also contemplated as a multi-phase development. Earlier reporting indicated that the approximately 20-acre site could support later phases beyond the conversion of the school, potentially including mixed or multigenerational housing.⁴
More recently, Pinecrest became the first project associated with Prince Edward County’s Community Benefits Network. In June 2025, Pinecrest Housing and Thrive PEC formalized a letter of intent intended to encourage local hiring, opportunities for people facing employment barriers, affordable housing, sustainable practices and wider community benefits.¹¹
The initiative involved Community Futures, Thrive PEC, the Prince Edward Learning Centre and other community participants. Its significance is that the project is being asked not merely to construct apartments, but to create broader local value while doing so.
That approach reflects the original spirit of LoveSong. The objective was never simply to place units inside an old school. It was to create a place that contributes back—to residents, workers, local organizations and Bloomfield itself.
More Than a Future Construction Site
Parts of the property have already been used for community purposes while the housing project awaits full construction.
Pinecrest has reported youth sports, soccer activities, emergency-services training and practical-skills programs at the site. More than 2,500 trees have reportedly been planted, and work has begun on the planned Golden Mile walking trail.⁶
The current concept retains the former gymnasium for residents and the surrounding community, with possible uses including fitness, theatre, hobbies and meetings. The grounds are intended to support community gardens, markets and walking space.⁵
In that sense, Pinecrest has already begun behaving like a community hub even before it has become a residence.
The Funding Wall
It would be misleading to suggest that the project is complete or that its success is assured.
The principal obstacle has long been capital funding.
When the initiative was struggling in 2019, the anticipated cost was already in the millions. Subsequent construction inflation, building conditions, design requirements and financing challenges pushed the estimated capital need substantially higher. By 2024 and 2025, public reporting referred to a funding requirement of approximately $14 million before major construction could proceed.³ ¹¹
The former school is a large, aging institutional building. Converting it into safe, accessible and code-compliant housing requires far more than cosmetic renovations. Mechanical, electrical, structural, environmental, accessibility and life-safety systems must all be addressed. The work also requires professional design, approvals, financing and long-term operational planning.
That complexity helps explain the delays, but it does not make the carrying costs disappear.
In 2025, local reporting indicated that the project continued to seek the major financing required to begin the main renovation. The hoped-for timeline at that stage anticipated construction beginning in 2025 and completion in 2026, but those dates were dependent on funding.¹¹
Pinecrest’s current website states that the project aims to create 55 affordable housing suites for seniors who face increasing safety risks in their present homes but can continue living independently with the appropriate mix of support services. It also continues to accept expressions of interest from Prince Edward County residents aged 65 and older.⁵ ¹²
The project is therefore alive and active, but the central challenge remains: turning years of planning, fundraising and preparation into a fully financed construction program.
Why This Work Deserves Recognition
Prince Edward County has no shortage of plans, studies and discussions about affordable housing. What distinguishes Pinecrest is the extent to which ordinary residents have carried an extraordinarily complicated idea forward over many years.
They did not begin as a major housing provider. They did not possess a municipal development department, guaranteed government financing or a balance sheet capable of funding a large institutional conversion.
They began with a need they could see.
Older neighbours were leaving the County. Others were isolated in homes that no longer worked for them. A school was sitting empty. A small group associated with a Baptist congregation asked whether one problem might help solve another.
The answer was not immediate. It required municipal cooperation, legal and organizational work, a development partner, professional design, land planning, fundraising, fee agreements, funding applications and thousands of hours of volunteer labour.
The original optimism encountered difficult realities. Timelines slipped. Costs rose. Government financing proved complicated. The physical building presented challenges. Plans had to evolve.
Yet the project survived.
That survival is not a substitute for completing the housing, but it is an achievement. It demonstrates what can happen when persistence is distributed across a community rather than resting solely on a government program or a single organization.
It also offers a useful lesson. Large institutions remain essential—especially when capital requirements reach this scale—but Pinecrest exists today because volunteers created something sufficiently credible, durable and valuable for institutions to support.
A Community Building More Than Housing
The best affordable-housing projects do more than reduce rent.
They create stability. They preserve independence. They allow people to remain close to friends, doctors, familiar places and the community in which they built their lives.
Pinecrest also addresses an aspect of aging that housing statistics rarely capture: the need to remain useful, connected and known.
Its planned suites are private, but much of the life of the project is intended to occur in shared spaces. The building is envisioned not merely as a corridor of closed doors, but as a community in which residents can exercise, create, garden, volunteer, gather and help one another.
That vision came from the people behind LoveSong. It remains at the heart of Pinecrest Housing today.
The project still needs substantial funding. Its advocates still have work ahead of them, and the community should continue to expect transparent reporting on financing, affordability, construction milestones and long-term operations.
But scrutiny and appreciation can coexist.
There is something deeply admirable in what Ken How, Joy Vervoort, Donna Rodgers, John Uings, Paul Robinson, Andy and Phil Spry, Desmond Norris, Emmanuel Baptist Church, Springale Development, local businesses, students, donors and thousands of hours of unnamed volunteer effort have attempted.
They looked at an empty school and did not see only a liability.
They saw older neighbours who needed homes.
They saw a gymnasium that could continue to echo with community life.
They saw land that could support gardens, trails, trees and future housing.
Most of all, they saw that waiting for someone else was not enough.
The name LoveSong may have been retired, but it remains an apt description of the effort: a long, difficult and determined expression of care for a community and for the people who helped build it.
The next step now rests partly with governments and major funders. The community has already supplied the vision, the labour, the persistence and more than $1 million in support.
What Pinecrest needs is the financing required to turn that dedication into construction, keys and homes.
Sources and Footnotes
1. County Live, “Council to consider expression of interest for Pinecrest school,” December 18, 2017. The report documents the school’s closure, surplus process and the LoveSong proposal associated with Emmanuel Baptist Church. (County Live)
2. Sharon Harrison, County Live, “LoveSong shares community housing vision for former Pinecrest School,” January 17, 2018. The article describes the first public meeting, the proposed 50-unit co-housing model and comments by Ken How and Joy Vervoort. (County Live)
3. Sharon Harrison, County Live, “Drive to turn former school into seniors’ housing is stalled,” October 15, 2019. The article describes the origins of the project, the difficulties securing support and financing, and Ken How’s account of seniors having to leave the County. (County Live)
4. County Live, “Key exchange hits right note for LoveSong seniors housing in former school,” October 6, 2020. The report documents the $375,000 property transfer, approximately 20-acre site and early multi-phase plans. (County Live)
5. Pinecrest Housing, “Project.” The current project description identifies the goal of 55 affordable suites, the independent-living model, community gymnasium and proposed uses of the grounds. (Pinecrest Housing)
6. Pinecrest Housing, organizational website and project materials. The organization reports more than 8,000 volunteer hours, more than $1 million raised, community use of the property, tree planting and trail development. (Pinecrest Housing)
7. County Live, “LoveSong housing development pleased with summer progress,” September 7, 2021. The article names Donna Rodgers, John Uings, Paul Robinson, Ken How, Andy Spry and others; it also records student labour, interior clearing and donations by local businesses and tradespeople. (County Live)
8. Pinecrest Housing, “Project Team.” The page identifies current and recent project leaders and provides biographical information on Ken How, Donna Rodgers, Desmond Norris and other team members. (Pinecrest Housing)
9. Pinecrest Housing media archive and local reporting concerning the transition from LoveSong to Pinecrest Housing and the involvement of Springale Development. (Pinecrest Housing)
10. County of Prince Edward, “Council and Committee of the Whole Highlights—June 25 and 27,” July 3, 2024. The municipal summary records Council’s approval of the fee-waiver agreement involving Pinecrest Housing and Springale Development. (The County)
11. County Live, “PEC Community Benefits Network launches with focus on needs,” June 6, 2025. The article describes the letter of intent, community-benefits commitments, anticipated 50-unit project and the approximately $14-million funding challenge. (County Live)
12. Pinecrest Housing, “Expression of Interest.” The organization states that its wait-list is open to Prince Edward County residents aged 65 and older. (Pinecrest Housing)
Editor’s note: Many volunteers, donors, tradespeople, businesses and community organizations have contributed to Pinecrest Housing over several years. This article names individuals identified in public reporting, but it cannot acknowledge every person whose work has helped sustain the project.