Huron County Planning Manager, Denise Van Amersfoort says she was happy to see county council approve a proposal for affordable housing in Goderich at a special council meeting this week.
Van Amersfoort says the proposal consists of 39 apartment units in a building on the former Victoria Public School property on Gibbons Street.
The plan includes of a mix of ten supportive units and then 29 affordable units.
“Rent geared to income as well as what we call affordable, which would represent approximately 80 per cent of market rent. The supportive units are geared to individuals in our community that are transitioning out of homelessness and those units will be provided with wrap-around supports to help them in that transition,” said Van Amersfoort.
The total capital cost of the building is estimated to be about $20.4 million.
Some of the funding will come out of county reserves and there’ll be some financing over a period of years.
“We are also planning to apply to the Ontario Ministry of Health for those support services that I mentioned, so we’re going to be making application and very hopeful that we’re successful,” added Van Amersfoort.
And the timeline to build is at least two years.
“It’s approximately 24 to 30 months, so our goal, certainly, is to keep as close to two years as possible. There are a number of steps that will have to happen to get this into motion, but first step in the right direction this morning and very pleased to see this project moving forward.”
