Fifty new social housing units to be built in Corner Brook
Multi-unit buildings will feature combination of one- and two-bedroom homes
CORNER BROOK – Fifty new social housing units will be built by the provincial government in Corner Brook, and Mike Kearley says they will be a good start to addressing the need for both housing and affordable housing.
Kearley is the executive director of the Vine Place Community Centre, which provides support and services to the tenants of Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corp.’s Crestview Avenue neighbourhood.
At the centre on Wednesday, April 10, Housing Minister Fred Hutton announced that $20 million of the $36 million allocated in the 2024 provincial budget for the construction of 100 new public housing units will go to build the 50 units in Corner Brook. Forty-six units will be built in central Newfoundland and four will be built in Labrador West.
To make way for the new units, four buildings in the Crestview Avenue neighbourhood containing 32 units that have been vacant for a long time, some as far back as 2007, will be demolished.
While the community centre doesn’t directly deal with the provision of housing, the need still exists, Kearley says.
“We know that there is a huge shortage of housing here in Corner Brook and the housing corporation does have a long waiting list. We know that there’s a lot of families that are essentially one paycheque away from losing housing. People are just really feeling the pinch,” he said.
That’s evident, he said, when the centre gives out food hampers or school supplies, or holds clothing drives, and is swamped by people looking to avail of the services.
He said headway will be made with the 50 new units, but there is a long way to go to address the housing issue.
He said there needs to be further funding from government, but also the involvement of private corporations, individuals and community groups.
“I do think if we’re going to truly combat housing insecurity, we need a group around the table that can make those decisions and come up with the needed policies and compromises that are needed,” said Kearley.
He said there are organizations in Corner Brook that want to do that and have been working together on it, such as the Community Mental Health Initiative (CMHI).
Jade Kearley, who is Mike Kearley’s wife, is the CMHI’S inter-agency co-ordinator and also sits on the City of Corner Brook’s Community Partners Committee.
“This is something that community groups, in partnership with NL Housing, have been advocating for a long time,” she said of the new units.
“We know that the vacant buildings are sitting there and had explored possible projects, but nothing came to fruition.”
So, she was excited that finally there is a commitment from the government to do something about it and increase the housing stock in the area.
“It won’t meet the need, (but) it will help,” she said.
“We are seeing numbers increase for the need, but
I do think it is a first step.
The second step I think, is encouraging (the government) to commit additional funding to provide those wraparound supports. Community groups are doing a lot of work in our area. A lot of it falls to the community and we are doing it on very, very minimal dollars and doing it with very minimal staffing, and so it’s hard. If we had increased capacity, we could do a lot more,” said Jade Kearley.
Corner Brook Mayor Jim Parsons said the new units are exactly what is required in terms of social housing.
There are a lot of housing developments taking place in the city through the private sector, and the city is working with partners to get supportive housing done, Parsons said.
“But there’s no substitute for government-owned, provincially-owned housing. We’ve had a deficit here for a number of years because of some of the shuttered houses up in the Crestview area.”
He said the city has been
advocating to get those rebuilt. He said the city wants to see a mix of high-density and low-density housing, whether it be affordable or social housing, or privatesector for-profit housing, so it can meet the needs of both the economy and the social needs of citizens.
Hutton said a demolition order for the shuttered buildings will go out in the next few weeks and at same time a request for proposals for construction of the new housing will also go out.
He said the province is looking for different ideas of what could be built there, and the new one- and two-bedroom homes, in multi-unit buildings, will be modern, accessible and energy-efficient.
“That’s 90 per cent of the wait list for Newfoundland and Labrador Housing, is for one- or two-bedroom units,” said Hutton.
The new units will be constructed over a two-year period, with the entire project slated for completion in 2026, he said.
“The goal here is to get them built as quickly as possible. We’ve waited long enough. We want to get this done, and the need is there.”