December 17, 2009
Group hopes new senior’s complex revitalizes area
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By Trevor Suffield
Canstar Community News
Dec. 17, 2009 |
Proponents of a proposed seniors housing development for Brooklands and Weston are hoping it will help revitalize the two communities.
Members of the Brooklands Weston Seniors Not-For-Profit Housing Corp. are hoping to build a senior’s housing complex on William Avenue West.
The proposed two-storey, 17,131-sq. ft. building would feature one and two bedroom apartments. Project organizers are hoping to offer cost-shared life leases to prospective tenants.
Alice Steinke, secretary and treasurer of the BWSNHC, said that the project could be the key to re-energizing the neighbourhood.
“There’s a lot of isolated seniors who are remaining in their homes because they like the area, but there’s no place to go,” said Steinke, who is also the president of the Brooklands Pioneer Senior Citizen Club.
“But by having the seniors moving out of their homes, it will open up these homes for young families to move in to revitalize the area.”
The group has already received more than 20 inquiries from interested individuals. It hopes to purchase the site of the former Brooklands Recreational Centre for the project. The centre was demolished last year.
Steinke said the seniors club’s membership has doubled in the past four years and it wants to work in conjunction with housing project organizers to offer programming to area seniors.
Funding for the proposed facility has yet to be secured. The group plans to hold an open house in late January and provide further information on the project at that time.
Judy McKelvey, co-ordinator of the Keewatin Inkster Neighbourhood Resource Council and an advisor to the corporation’s board, said while the final cost to prospective tenants has yet to be determined, it would be based on fair market value.
“Your investment, basically, is to ensure that the housing can get built in the community and that you can stay in the area that you want to live,” McKelvey said.
Rev. Scott MacAuley, who operates Sparling United Church out of the seniors club, said there is a definite need for additional seniors housing in the community.
“There is a quite an interest, and I know around the congregation that people have been asking. Once they saw the model, that just tweaked their interest,” said MacAuley, who is also a member of the BWSNHC board.
MacAuley said the project has already received some seed money and development funding from the provincial government.
McKelvey said while the project won’t solve all of the problems facing Brooklands and Weston, it is an important first step in addressing them.
“I don’t see this as a be-all and end-all for seniors housing for the community. I see this as a way of raising awareness that nothing has come into this community for such a long time and it’s been neglected from all types of potential funding,” McKelvey said.
“This is an opportunity to finally put something back into the community and maybe see some of the amenities move back.”
For more information on the senior’s housing complex, call the BPSCC at 632-8367.
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