Long-term care centre in early days of converting into affordable housing

Long-term care centre Fox Ridge Care Community was recently bought by the City of Brantford in efforts to provide more affordable housing.

The purchase was made when Fox Ridge put its current centre up for sale earlier this year to move into a new three-storey facility at 166 Lynden Rd . While the city is still in the early stages of the planning process, the overall goal is to assist the homeless population in Brantford by providing more affordable housing. The early planning of the homeless facility is looking at possible transitional, supportive and affordable housing for those in our community.

“There’s a critical need for housing with multiple different needs in the community,” said Maria Visocchi, the director of communications for the City of Brantford. “There’s lots of different groups the city helps get into housing.”

The main goal is finding faster ways to provide more affordable housing for families in need. Some qualifying families includes survivors of domestic violence and those who need rent-geared-to-income or subsidized housing.

Fox Ridge became an opportunity for the city, as it’s already built and can be facilitated. This is seen as a benefit because this is a much less costly project for the city to provide shelter for those in need. A similar project was made from Lucy Marco Place, a previous Wilfrid Laurier University student resident building.

Many residents have voiced concerns that the surrounding community will be faced with issues following the project, such as drug-related activity, concern for the safety of children and the overall quality of the neighborhood.

“It’s really premature to determine what kind of tenants will take shelter in the building,” said Visocchi. “The city will provide security to ensure the safety of residents within the community. We understand it can make people feel unsafe.”

It’s been confirmed that the city will hold meetings for residents to voice concerns about the facility to ensure the community’s needs are met, while still providing housing for those in need Visocchi said. These meetings will be scheduled once the development reaches its later stages. Locations for meetings have not yet been confirmed.