A home they can afford
Newly opened affordable housing building accommodates more than 100 people but lengthy waiting list remains
Jan Gregory admits she was “very skeptical” about moving into an affordable housing building.
She had never lived in an apartment before. Her only experience with properties built specifically to provide affordable housing was in Toronto’s high-density Jane and Finch neighbourhood.
“We lived in Downsview for a very short time, and they built Ontario Housing across the way … it was very hard for me to come here,” she said Friday.
She did, though, and was on hand with her husband, Peter, for the official opening of 527 Carlton Street, the first affordable housing complex built in St. Catharines in more than 40 years.
After three years on the Niagara Regional Housing waiting list, the seniors landed a two-bedroom unit they can afford – and at just over $900 a month, rent is several hundred dollars less than what they were paying for a house in Niagara Falls.
“Now I’m here, the people are lovely and (the units) are really, really nice,” she said, adding her new neighbours are a mix of older people, some who are ill or disabled, a few others who were homeless – and all in need of a place they could afford.
The five-storey Carlton Street building has 68 single units and 17 doubles, including 13 that are disabled-accessible. All the units are considered affordable, meaning they cost 80 per cent of average market rent.
Before those 85 apartments were opened, NRH provided only 60 owned units to serve adults in St. Catharines.
“Affordability in our community for housing has become more and more of a challenge. It’s not just a Niagara thing, it’s a Canadian thing,” said St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik, who is also board chair at Niagara Regional Housing.
While the 85 units will provide housing for more than 100 people, it’s only a dent in the overall demand Niagara Regional Housing faces.
Chief executive officer Donna Woiceshyn said there is still a waiting list for about 5,500 units affecting more than 10,000 people across Niagara.
While NRH provides more than 2,800 owned units and another 5,400 through non-profits, co-ops or private owners, Carlton Street was still only the third owned new-build started in Niagara region in 50 years.
Other projects are in the works, she said, including one in Niagara Falls and a 12-unit stacked townhouse being built in Welland.
The NRH’s mandate is to rent to tenants whose income is at or below the household income limit which, in 2018 for all of Niagara except West Lincoln, was $34,000 for a one-bedroom,
$41,500 for two-bedroom or $51,000 for three-bedroom.
The demand for affordable housing is being felt across the province.
“Some of the existing stock that we have is very old, was built many years ago,” said Steve
Clark, Ontario’s minister of municipal affairs and housing.
“In the next less than 10 years, 106,000 community housing units are in jeopardy” as their operating agreements expire. “And that is something that keeps me awake at night.”
The federal and provincial governments paid just under $12 million of the $15.7-million overall cost for Carlton Street, with the rest coming from Niagara region.
Another tenant, Lorraine Biocevich, said she used to live in St. Catharines before moving to the U.S. to be closer to her daughter. While there, she put her name on the Niagara affordable housing waiting list.
“I was surprised when I got the call, because I kept going online and checking the waiting list … I thought gee, when I signed up four years ago it was a four-year waiting list.”
She said her return to Niagara brings her “full circle.”
“I used to live two blocks over, on Patricia Drive,” she said. “Raised my two boys and my daughter, they went to Carlton school … so I’m very familiar with this area here.”