By Justine Kelsie

Two affordable housing buildings in the works by Canadian Mental Health Association

May 9, 2018 | 4:57 PM

The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) is looking to build two buildings for affordable housing in the city.

The smaller 25-unit structure will come out to about $2 to 3-million and is set to be built within the next two years. Finance Coordinator with the association Pamela Foley says they have about three years left on the mortgage for Willow Place which also has about 25-units. The land that the building sits on was donated by the City of Grande Prairie.

“Going into a new build, we would like to own the land giving us a bigger asset base to leverage from. All of our builds will be self-sufficient. We have built in contingencies to build seed money for the next. We will start with the smaller one and hopefully build up enough to get into the bigger building with our 10 to 15-year plan,” Foley said.

The land that Willow Place is on would need to be signed over to the organization by the city.

“We are looking for a letter of support that the city acknowledges there is a need in the community and they support what we are doing trying to get an affordable housing build in Grande Prairie. We are also looking for them to sign the land over to Canadian Mental Health. We would then have full title, land and building.”

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The association had announced in August 2017 that they are working on a $13-million, 67-unit building with mixed-use space on the bottom floor. The organization had originally thought that they would be breaking ground in May 2018. According to Foley, the project which has been in the works for over two years isn’t set to be built for another 10 to 15 years. In the meantime, CMHA is building up their assets to be able to complete that third building.

Angie Saltman with CMHA says these new structures are a need.

“Willow Place has a waiting list and it is full. It will probably remain full because we have a lot of long-term tenants there. When I called the Grande Spirit Foundation, they perpetually have a list of 500 people waiting to get into affordable housing in Grande Prairie,” said Saltman.

She adds that the best thing for mental health is to have somewhere to call home.