Three affordable housing projects get green light
About 200 new affordable and supportive housing units will be built in Ottawa over the coming years, thanks to the latest cash injection from upper-tier governments.
Of the three projects that received the green light last month as part of the Action Ottawa program, the largest is slated for Centretown, where an eight-storey, 148-unit mixed-income building will be constructed by Ottawa Community Housing at 811 Gladstone Ave., between Booth and Rochester Streets.
The project secured $11 million in government grants, as well as $1.5 million in fee waivers and other incentives from the City of Ottawa.
The site currently contains 26 townhouses that were built more than 50 years ago and have reached the end of their service life, according to OCH.
Most of the residents have either moved out or are in the process of moving. The housing provider, which serves more than 32,000 residents in approximately 15,000 homes across the city, says its Gladstone Avenue tenants were offered alternate housing options within OCH’s portfolio.
OCH plans to demolish the three buildings once all the units are vacant, ideally by July, and begin construction soon after. The goal is to have the new building substantially complete by the spring of 2020.
OCH couldn’t put a total price tag on the project yet because it is still working out the details of apartment size and various energy efficiency elements.
Across town, the Shepherds of Good Hope will construct a 42-unit supportive housing building at 765 Montreal Rd., just east of Montfort Hospital.
The non-profit secured $6.3 million from the federal and provincial governments, as well as $739,000 in municipal waivers and incentives, toward the total cost, which is between $9 million and $10 million.
Unlike the 350-bed Salvation Army shelter proposed for 333 Montreal Rd., which failed to win the support of several local city councillors, the Shepherds project got a thumbs up from both RideauRockcliffe Coun. Tobi Nussbaum and Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury.
“It’s a much smaller facility and it’s supportive housing, which sets it apart,” Nussbaum told Ottawa News East.
Clients could move into the new Shepherds facility in late 2019 or early 2020.
The third project will see the Ottawa branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association acquire eight new condominium units across the city, where people will live independently with some support.
The CMHA secured $1.2 million in federal and provincial grants.
The city’s housing services branch last summer launched a search for organizations to develop new affordable or supportive rental housing.
According to director Shelley VanBuskirk, up to $10 million in capital funding was available from the federal/provincial Affordable Housing for Ontario program, as well as another possible $8 million from a new provincial program called Home for Good. mpearson@postmedia.com twitter.com/mpearson78