Acting Mayor, Myles Murdock believes the shortage of affordable housing is one of the biggest issues for the town of Goderich.
And Murdock says they are making progress in addressing that concern. Murdock says council recently approved the construction of an apartment building on Suncoast Drive, beside Art's Landscaping. Murdock says the apartment building will be around sixty units.
“We approved that with the idea that a number of the apartments would be rented out to more senior people who decided to down-size and that opens up a part of the market that would like to buy a house,” explained Murdock.
The county is also looking at constructing a supportive housing building on about one acre of the land that the town acquired with the former Victoria Public School, according to Murdock. He said it will be a four story building but the lower level will be for supportive housing for homeless people and other people who need support. He says there will be meeting rooms in the building and rooms for interviewing and there will be someone there 24/7.
“We were looking at providing the land for the property. It was part of our acquisition of Victoria Public School. It only takes up a little more than an acre of the property that's remaining and that's going to be 29 units,” said Murdock.
The second floor will be geared to income units and the upper floor will be for affordable housing. Murdock is hopeful the three projects will begin to address three problem areas in the town and they hope the buildings will be ready for occupancy by this time next year.
