Proponents of a $4.8 million, 30-unit Aboriginal affordable housing project were in Dryden last week to discuss upcoming renovations to the former Weyerhaeuser Training Centre.

At the 24 Duke St. site, a delegation from Sault Ste. Marie-based Ontario Aboriginal Housing Service (OAHS) met with members of the local Dryden Urban Aboriginal Housing Group, Jan. 26, to gain a better sense of how the former education, training and conference centre will be converted into 18 residential units.

When completed the site will also house the northwest offices of the Ontario Aboriginal Housing Service and will retain its distinctive circular conference centre for community events. The facility will house supportive components such as health services.

The property, extending the length of the block to Whyte Ave., will see an additional 12 units housed in three new buildings.

While mothballed for several years, OAHS Executive Director Don McBain says the former education and training facility has a utilities infrastructure robust enough to handle the residential conversion and the construction of additional buildings.

“It’s not going to be as difficult as a lot of institutional building envelopes we’ve converted in the past,” said McBain. “This building is so over-engineered that it makes our job easy. The electrical servicing to the building could light all of downtown and the air-handing and heating system rivals what I’ve seen in new hospital construction. One of the first things our engineers wanted to do was utilize the heating and plumbing from this building to deal with all the residential aspects of what we’re going to be doing.”

Sally Ledger, Dryden Native Friendship Centre Executive Director and housing group member, says recent community needs studies have identified housing challenges facing the local urban Aboriginal population.

“We had two consultations here in Dryden,” said Ledger. “We had identified that our seniors, women and families affected by violence and youth were our priorities — basically the whole gamut of off-reserve urban Aboriginal people. We feel that the housing was too limited and expensive in Dryden. The cost of living up here is very expensive and the utilities are outrageous.”

It is estimated that as many as 130 urban Aboriginal families are seeking affordable housing in the Kenora District.

Ledger says the Dryden Urban Aboriginal Housing Group has been meeting since last May — comprised of representatives from the Dryden Native Friendship Centre, Metis Nation Of Ontario, and the Ontario Native Women’s Association via Sioux Lookout’s Meno Ya Win Health Centre.

In terms of community response, McBain says that misconceptions can sometimes arise around projects of this nature.

“It’s something that I believe, in the past, we’ve been able to very quickly overcome when people see what it does for the community. This development is to provide safe, affordable housing for aboriginal people who live here now. It’s not for raising the population, or for bringing people in from the outside.”

McBain says housing applicants will have to satisfy a residency requirement to qualify.

“You’d have to be a resident of the area for some time before an application for housing would be accepted.” he said. “That sort of eliminates ‘parachuting’.”

McBain adds that the building presents a near ideal scenario among building conversion projects, citing factors of price, location, even Aboriginal-inspired architectural elements built in the present structure.

“We drove by this building three times and we finally said, ‘we’ve got to get in there’. When we sat down with pen and paper and started looking at cost-per-unit opportunities and our ability to deliver the maximum number of beneficial units to the community, it just leapt out at us. You’ve got Safeway behind it, a drugstore beside it, the arena and the river. The acquisition price — with what they were asking for the property there was no way you could even consider re-developing this building for anywhere near that. It was a great opportunity and we were fortunate enough to take advantage of it.”

The building conversion is expected to be complete by June 1 with the additional three buildings to be constructed by the end of July.

By Chris Marchand