A seniors housing complex in downtown Williams Lake will be upgraded with an additional 36 units thanks to funding announced by the provincial government Friday, June 4.
Mayor Walt Cobb chairs the Glen Arbor Park Home Society said at first the board talked about adding 20 units, but decided with the cost of construction being high it was best to “go for the gusto,” and they applied for more.
Read more: Williams Lake city council endorses 21-unit expansion of Glen Arbor
“We applied for the funding a year ago when we had the plans drawn up, but we were turned down,” Cobb said. “But now that we’ve had our housing study done showing high need for homes it helped us this time around.”
The new addition will be constructed at the end of the existing common area and have at least one if not two additional elevators to add to the two existing ones.
There will also be a new entrance for a separate entrance way for the new portion and more underground parking added.
A total of 47 new projects were selected through the Building BC: Community Housing Fund for a total of 2,455 rental homes.
“We had a consultant that BC Housing found us to do the application and great help from Trevor Kier,” Cobb said.
The funding will come in the form of a mortgage that will be added to existing one for Glen Arbor so there was no need for the society to come up with the money, he added.
Cobb said there has always been a waiting list of people wanting to move in.
When Glen Arbor was first built 17 years ago, Cobb was the area MLA at the time and part of the ribbon cutting ceremony when it opened.
Originally the land was owned by the province and was the location of a ministry of highways home for the superintendent.
“It was destined to have a courthouse but the superintendent of highway’s wife was a social worker and she helped us get the land for Glen Arbor,” Cobb said.
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Jill Atkey, CEO, BC Non-Profit Housing Association said the community housing sector looks forward to working with municipal partners to ensure these new homes are built as quickly as possible.
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