The organization behind an affordable housing project in southeast Calgary says it needs $5 million in order to complete upgrades to the building.
Before it was purchased in 2021 by the Victory Foundation, the original space used to be home to the Town and Country Motor Hotel, a building with a dubious past.
“It used to be a very notorious hotel,” said Victory Foundation executive director Don Delaney.
“It was very rough when we came in here, a lot of drug paraphernalia.”
Upgrades have been made to the exterior of the hotel over the last few years. Work has also been done to remove all the asbestos from the building and the interior has been gutted.
However, Delaney said the inside can’t be completed without a fresh injection of cash due to an increase in the price of materials.
“When we started, I kind of gave a low budget of $9.5 million and then it went up to $11 million and now it’s $14 million,” he explained.
Delaney said the project has already raised $9 million in donations thanks to the generosity of Calgarians. Once it’s completed, the building will house women, their children and seniors.
“We have a long list of people that want to come in here. We’re hoping to get it done as soon as possible,” Delaney said.
Carmelina Harling, a 63-year-old who volunteers with the foundation, said she pays more than $1,000 per month for her current basement apartment and hopes that one day she’ll be able to move in to the conversion.
“The apartment is extremely damp and I know there’s mould there,” said Harling.
“I had to take what I could get because the rents are crazy.”
The foundation is hoping to raise at least $10,000 this week with a Gift a Quilt fundraising auction put on by local organization Crafty Bees.
“We wanted every single woman who came here to be wrapped in a quilt that was made with love and care and respect,” said Katharine Bondy with Crafty Bees.
The group was started 13 years ago in Forest Lawn in order to teach women skills and give them a sense of community.
“As we got better, we moved into making quilts and people were so generous and donated fabric and sewing machines,” Bondy explained. “So far, we’ve made 238 quilts and 87 of those quilts will remain in this facility.”
People who win the auction will have their names sewn into the quilts and then they’ll be left for the tenants in their rooms when they move in.
Bondy said the quilts were made possible thanks in part to the Calgary Foundation who provided much of the material.
“We know that some of these women are coming from some pretty tough situations and we wanted them to feel loved.”