Being stuck on a wait-list for affordable housing is like being in the middle of the ocean, clinging to a log as you get tossed by the waves. You can’t see land, but you know it’s out there somewhere.
That’s how a woman named Rebekah described her sense of vulnerability in her search for a safe and affordable place to live in a video shown at MennoHomes’ annual meeting.
An ambitious new housing project by MennoHomes hopes to respond to that need, said executive director Dan Driedger.
The $12.7 million project will build a five-storey apartment building at 544 Bridgeport Rd. near Lancaster Street, with 40 one-bedroom units and eight two-bedroom units. The building includes community space and worship space for the congregation whose church is now on the site.
The project is an unusual partnership between MennoHomes, a nonprofit with 105 affordable housing units in the region, Parents for Community Living, a charity that supports adults with developmental disabilities, and St. Paul’s, Kitchener, Ont., which owns the property where the apartment will be built.
The congregation was aging and was looking for a sustainable way to meet its needs and still serve the community. “Last year, this was just a dream,” said Dale Kennedy, a member of St. Paul’s. “Our dream is becoming a reality. Our church property will serve a much fuller community service than when it was just our community church.”
The congregation moved out of the 1956 yellow-brick church earlier this month [January]. The church will be demolished in March and construction of the new building is expected to start in April.
The building will have units at differentlevels of affordability, ranging from the Ontario Disability Support Program shelter amount—currently $497 a month, up to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. average rent of $1,045 a month.
Having a mix of rents “we think really creates a healthier project overall,” Driedger said.
Up to 10 of the units will be occupied by adults with development disabilities and two more could be available for refugees. The church was used by Meals on Wheels, the Girl Guides and for activities like ballroom dancing and tai chi. The hope is that the new building will also serve as a community hub.
The new building will be accessible and designed with an energy efficiency 25 per cent above what’s required in the Building Code, so that tenant utility costs will be low, Driedger said.
Parents for Community Living will offer cooking lessons in the community kitchen. “One of the chief skills people (with developmental disabilities) want to learn is how to cook,” said Kathy Loveys, the group’s executive director, adding that it hopes to offer those lessons to other community groups as well.
MennoHomes’ approach to creating affordable housing is to raise enough money through grants and donations to build or buy the homes, and cover all operating costs, including mortgage payments, through the rents charged to tenants.
The project has received $4.6 million from federal, provincial and municipal governments, including $3.8 from Waterloo Region. But it needs to raise another $5 million to ensure that tenant rents cover operating costs. That goal is equivalent to all the money MennoHomes has raised since it started in 2001, Driedger said.
Former Kitchener mayor Carl Zehr is leading the fundraising campaign. Donations can be made at www.mennohomes.com.
MennoHomes would like to eventually build a second affordable apartment building on the one-hectare (2.5-acre) parcel of land.
There are more than 4,800 households on the region’s waiting list for social housing. A recent study by the City of Kitchener estimates the city needs another 3,000 units of community housing, just to meet existing demand.
—Catherine Thompson
(Originally published in The Record, Jan. 31, 2020. Used with permission.)
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