OTTAWA – The Diocese of Ottawa is celebrating the success of its 125th anniversary campaign to create 125 new deeply affordable housing units.
Three projects scheduled to open in April and May – Hollyer House at Christ Church Bells Corners, Cornerstone Housing for Women’s Eccles Street residence and Carebridge Community Support’s residence in Smiths Falls – represent 109 units. When combined with the 42 units at Cornerstone’s Princeton Avenue residence, which opened in 2018, a total of 151 units have been completed. And many more are in various stages of development.
In related news, Cornerstone, an Anglican ministry, announced that it was moving its crowded emergency shelter on O’Connor Street to Carling Avenue at the end of April. The new accessible location increases capacity 145 per cent, from 61 to 150 beds.
Other projects in the 125th anniversary campaign are progressing well. The extension at Ellwood House, affiliated with St. Thomas the Apostle in Alta Vista, Julian of Norwich’s Anchor project in Nepean and a proposed residence in Perth supported by St. James the Apostle are expected to add more than 100 units, for a grand total of about 260.
Bishop Shane Parker said that, having reached the initial goal, “we need to restate our commitment to doing our part to increase the stock of affordable housing.”
He said the diocese’s Homelessness and Affordable Housing Working Group is working with him to define a new affordable housing strategy, to be adopted by Synod this fall. In the meantime, he said, parishes continue to seek out opportunities to support new affordable housing initiatives in their local communities.
The bishop pointed out that in our baptismal covenant we vow to seek and serve Christ in all persons, to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being. “This is clearly intended to be accompanied by meaningful action,” he said. “We know about the intensification of need and danger on the streets of our diocese. The opioid crisis is a very real part of the distress on our streets, and the housing crisis is a major contributing factor.”
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