An affordable housing project near Dow’s Lake that will soon introduce 58 new units for modest- and middle-income seniors into Ottawa’s rental market is getting a $7.84-million loan from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the Liberal government announced on Wednesday.
News of the investment comes during a blitz of Liberal funding pledges ahead of the 2019 federal election campaign — and it comes nine months after the group behind the project, The King’s Daughters and Sons Apartments Inc., says it received confirmation of the loan and as construction enters its final stages.
Construction of the new, six-storey building is well underway; it began July 2018 and is expected to wrap up mid-October.
Thirty-eight of the 58 units — contained in the addition to the current KDS Apartments at 567 Cambridge St. South — will be supplied at 70 per cent of average market rent, while 20 units will be at average market rent, according to the organization.
“We expect residents to begin moving in in November … all things going well,” said Patricia Fisher, president of KDS Apartments.
KDS Apartments had previously scored $5 million in grants and waived fees for the project from other funding sources, including through a separate federal-provincial social infrastructure funding stream.
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But the “final help” through the CMHC loan allows KDS “to have a viable project,” KDS Apartments vice-president Walter Davidson said.
Fisher said in spring 2018, the organization applied for that financing through CHMC’s rental construction financing initiative, which provides low-cost loans to “borrowers who want to build affordable rental housing in Canada.”
The group found out in November 2018 that it had been accepted for the loan and everything was “legally set up” in early 2019, Fisher said.
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Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, the member of parliament for the area, made the funding announcement on Wednesday on behalf of Jean-Yves Duclos, the minister responsible for families, children and social development, who also oversees the CMHC.
“I’m extremely passionate about building a better community and nothing is more important than having a place to call home — a safe, affordable place. That isn’t the case for everyone in Ottawa Centre yet,” McKenna said.
Global News asked Duclos’s office and CMHC why the funding announcement was scheduled nine months after the loan for KDS was confirmed.
“We are doing our best to announce projects as soon as they are approved,” a spokesperson for Duclos replied.
City councillor and deputy mayor Laura Dudas, who attended on behalf of the City of Ottawa, praised the investment, saying affordable housing is “much needed” in the national capital.
The King’s Daughters and Sons is a 130-year-old non-profit, volunteer-run organization. In 1964, it opened the existing KDS Apartments which offer 70 rental units for seniors and was the first building in Ottawa to provide purpose-built, senior-oriented affordable housing, according to the organization.
Despite an increase in the senior population and in the need for centrally-located affordable housing, KDS Apartments says no other buildings of its kind have been constructed in the Glebe and Dow’s Lake neighbourhood until now, Davidson said.
“The completion of this project continues our long-held commitment to keep seniors living in their own homes within the community by providing affordable housing, with needed supports, and all in an attractive setting,” he said.
“We have beautiful indoor and outdoor amenity spaces. And really, we’re all excited to see it all come together.”
Davidson said all the units are “visitable,” meaning a wheelchair user can visit the residence and access any room in the building. Ten of the suites are “barrier-free,” while another 16 can be adapted to meet mobility needs “easily and inexpensively.”
Valérie Glazer, press secretary for Duclos, confirmed that KDS Apartments will have to fully re-pay the CMHC loan when it matures.
“The mortgage loan insurance provided by CMHC to KDS will facilitate the renewal of the loan and ensure continued favourable interest rates.”
The federal government’s announcement also comes the same day the Federation of Canadian Municipalities called on all the federal political parties “to commit to boosting access to housing for low-income Canadians, while also tackling the broader and growing disconnect between rents, home prices and incomes.”
McKenna is running for re-election as MP for Ottawa Centre.
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