A new project by London and Middlesex Community Housing will help out a dent in London’s housing crisis, and update aging community housing stock.
A ground breaking ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday at 1057 Southdale Rd. E. for the Reimagine Southdale project
It’s a six storey, 53 unit building that will replace 18 townhouses that have been torn down, said London and Middlesex Community Housing CEO Paul Chisholm.
“Like a mid-rise apartment,” he explained. “We’re leaving most of the townhouses here, and were putting the six storey building with two, three, and four bedroom units on this site you see here, just to intensify the site, make use of existing infrastructure.”
The townhouses at the site were built in the early 1970s using the standards of the day, and not much has changed about them. The new six storey building will meet all of today’s accessibility requirements, said Chisholm.
“Eleven of the units will be fully accessible, but all of them will have improved accessibility. It’s the first time we’re building family units that will be accessible to folks. Typically our family units are townhouses. Now in a multi-residential apartment there’s going to be more accessible if there’s a parent with a disability or a child with a disability,” he said.
According to tenants, the updated units are long overdue.
Josie Antone said she has lived in her unit at the complex for seven years. She considers herself one of the lucky ones because hers is the only place around her that she knows of that’s been updated in the last 30 years.
“Before I moved here there was a fire at my house and my whole townhouse had to be renovated. They updated like everything, the bathrooms, the kitchen,” she said.
Avery Wood, 21, has lived in the complex all his life. He’s encouraged by the new project, but at the same time is a little apprehensive.
“I think it could he good for the community, but it could also go bad, depending…depending on who they let in, like without checking. You know, background checks and stuff,” he said.
The project is phase one of three new buildings. It’s expected to be move-in ready in the summer of 2025.
Antone welcomes the new neighbours.
“I’m happy, like there are so many homeless right now that are on the street. It’s good that they can expand,” she said.
https://london.ctvnews.ca/reimagine-southdale-the-beginning-of-much-needed-updates-to-community-housing-stock-1.6795503
