With its eligibility criteria defined, the Blue Mountains Attainable Housing Corporation (BMAHC) has begun registering future tenants for its Gateway attainable housing project.
“I'm proud to say that there are 67 people registered and I want to share with you a little snapshot of what the profile looks like for people who are actually signing up,” said Sharon McCormick, executive director for the BMAHC.
McCormick, along with the TBM councillor and chair of the BMAHC Rob Sampson, presented an update on the corporation’s progress at a virtual town hall event held last week that was organized by the Citizen’s Forum and the Blue Mountain Ratepayers Association, two community groups that have established their interest in town affairs.
The BMAHC began registering future tenants for the Gateway site, which is located at 171 King Street East in Thornbury, in early August.
According to McCormick, the BMAHC has seen 67 individuals register to be future residents of the site without undertaking any official marketing.
Of the 67 individuals, over half are currently living in the Town of the Blue Mountains (TBM) and have identified that their current housing situation is unaffordable or unstable.
Thirty per cent of those registered are currently living in adjacent communities, such as Collingwood or Meaford.
The majority of the people who have registered are individuals with 20 per cent being families with one or two children.
According to McCormick, 68 per cent of registrants are currently working in TBM and 15 per cent are currently looking for work in TBM.
Seventeen per cent of respondents said they are currently retired or will be retired by the time the Gateway site is functional.
“Sixty-seven people putting their name down for something that might be built and finished by 2023, with no marketing. I think that's pretty good,” said Rob Sampson, chair of the BMAHC and TBM councillor.
“I think it's an indication of how deep the market is. We have hardly scratched the surface. I think when we start to dig deeper, and Sharon gets on with building a more extensive list, it won't take long before we're oversold in that building, which is the unfortunate thing,” Sampson added.
The BMAHC anticipates finalizing the building contract for the Gateway project in 2021.
Currently, construction is forecast to begin in early 2022 and expected to be completed by 2023.
