Smiths Falls church plays vital role in success of housing project

The parish of St. John the Evangelist Smiths Falls is credited with being “absolutely mission critical” in an affordable housing project that will open its doors early next year.

The parish donated $500,000 last year, part of a generous bequest, to kick-start the project that will provide 34 badly needed units in the town. “It was more than just the money,” said Robert Eves, chief executive officer of Carebridge Community Support, the project developer.

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Eves points to the extensive consultations that St. John’s conducted. “It showed that the community really believes in the project and is 100 per cent behind it.”

Smiths Falls Mayor Shawn Pankow who brought St. John’s together with Carebridge in 2019 said, “I can’t tell you how important it was.”  He knew that St. John’s was interested in affordable housing and that Carebridge was looking for significant community support.

St. John’s built the support through a series of consultations to determine a consensus about the town’s most pressing needs. Meetings were held with social services, youth groups, town council, other churches. Affordable housing along with abuse came out on top.

Eves says St. John’s initiative was important in demonstrating to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) that the wider community was behind the project. The parish enlisted the help of Bishop Shane Parker who wrote a letter that was also used in the application for CMHC funding.

Eves says the other mission critical factor is the dedication and expertise of the Saumure Group, the Smiths Falls-based contractor with extensive experience in building rentals in small towns. “We couldn’t have done it without them.”

Chris Saumure, the president and Chris Haines, vice president, donated “thousands of hours in-kind” even before the project had any certainty of going ahead. They wanted to play a part in providing affordable housing to the town.

During the formative stage, back in 2019, Carebridge enlisted Cahdco, the Ottawa non-profit affordable housing developer, as project co-ordinator to help navigate the application process with Canada Mortgage and Housing (CMHC). 

That paid off in July when Carebridge got $430,000 from the CMHC National Housing Co-Investment Fund. By July, construction was already more than half completed based on funding from Lanark County, Smiths Falls, St. John’s and a fundraising campaign.

Also early on, Carebridge set up a project team that streamlines communication among all the players thus expediting construction. 

The team meets regularly. From the outset, St. John’s has been represented, first by the Rev. Canon Catherine Ascah and more recently by parishioner Tammy Mulrooney.

Mulrooney says the meetings keep her informed about construction and funding details and are very beneficial. She reports back to the congregation from time to time in bulletins and reports to parish council.

A dedicated contractor, good communications, community support— these are the elements that have contributed to construction on track for completion in record time, one year from shovels in the ground. But like most projects, it will have been four years from initial inception.

There were setbacks. Initial plans to house a food bank on the ground floor had to be scrapped due to building code restrictions. The redrawing of the ground floor, adding six housing units and revising an application to CMHC, took less than a month thanks in part to the project team approach.

The residence at 44 Chambers Street will soon be home for 34 names on the Lanark County wait list of more than 800. Many have been waiting for seven years.  Eves says the wait list is growing at an unprecedented rate. “The pressures are everywhere.”