The city is moving forward with looking at the possibility of putting 10 converted shipping containers on a piece of city-owned land that would be used as harm reduction social housing.
The location is 106 Beaumont Cr., located a block north of York Road on the city’s east side.
At Monday’s meeting of council’s Committee of the Whole the following motion was passed: “That staff be directed to investigate options and required needs for harm reduction housing on 106 Beaumont and report back by January 2020.”
It passed by a 12-1 vote. Councillor Dan Gibson was the only vote against.
A second possible location has also been identified, but it’s currently a private property and couldn’t be revealed in open council.
If the plan comes to fruition on city-owned property, the initiative would cost the city up to $600,000, primarily in the cost of purchasing the units.
The units would be for people living on social service housing allowances.
“(The financial ask of council) could be considerably less, depending on what private partners bring to the table,” Adrienne Crowder of the Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy told council at its Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday.
The WGDS is one of several agencies involved with the project.
“We would be able to house people at an extremely affordable rate,” Crowder said.
She said ideally she would like to see the money in the 2020 budget.
The cost of the units is $50,000 apiece for a 40 foot-by-8 foot container home.
One of the 10 units would be an on-site office.
“These are the people in the greatest need and this is a very cost-effective solution,” said coun. Bob Bell, who along with coun. Rodrigo Goller has been leading the charge to establish this type of housing.
“My major concern with this is that I want to be certain we do this right,” coun. Phil Allt said.
He had concerns about the “ghettoization or stigmatization” of the project, the effect of neighbouring property values, the possibility of a legal challenge by neighbours and why the county isn’t on board.
There was discussion Monday of the need for a “distributive model” so that not too many of the units are placed in one location moving forward.
Crowder said 15 per cent of that cost could be covered by a grant from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the remaining cost would be eligible for a low-interest loan.
There would also be a possible cost associated from leasing the land, if it were city property, or purchasing a site if it were private.
Crowder’s report to council also said that private funding sources have been identified and are being explored.
