Anne Tasse spent nearly 15 years on Simcoe County’s affordable housing wait list, and last month her long wait finally came to a close.
Tasse is one of dozens of new tenants that have moved into the 130-unit affordable housing hub on West Street North, which officially opened this spring after years of planning and construction.
After living in a small studio apartment near downtown Orillia, where passing trucks would rattle her windows and shake her furniture, Tasse said a variety of little things have made her new apartment feel like a home.
For example, the thick walls between units allow her to enjoy her own apartment without the sounds of vehicles and neighbours; the apartment also boasts a relatively spacious washroom and living space compared to her previous place.
“It’s much more spacious. It’s never been lived in, so it’s officially mine,” she told OrilliaMatters. “It has helped me in my mental well being, as well, because I feel like I've done well.”
Tasse, 50, lives with numerous disabilities that prevent her from working full time, and she said her new apartment finally brings her the “safety and security” she needs to get a good night’s sleep.
“It's a safe space, and it's all the things that I've been waiting for,” she said.
Tasse isn’t alone in her feelings.
Shawn Desjardins is another new tenant at the four-storey, $80-million West Street North facility, an opportunity he said has fundamentally changed his life.
“I've been on my own for 40 years now, and it's the first time I called a place home,” Desjardin, 52, told OrilliaMatters.
Before moving in last month, Desjardins paid $1,650 per month plus hydro for an apartment in Stayner, an arrangement that was prohibitively expensive on his budget and did not meet his accessibility needs.
“Everything I’ve been through here, it’s been nothing but praise and good things,” he said. “I honestly don’t have one ill thing to say about this place and how it saved my life.”
Desjardins previously ran his own bakery in Stayner, until several health issues — including a recent leg amputation — prevented him from working and left him in a dire situation.
“With my new amputation and stuff and needing a wheelchair just recently, without this I don't know where I'd be,” he said. “Everything's accessible for me to do the dishes, to do cooking, laundry — every single aspect has been covered.”
Now collecting WSIB and Canada Pension, Desjardin is grateful to have a home he can reasonably afford.
“I'm so grateful that I got in here,” he said. “Everywhere else, it's two grand for a one- bedroom for exactly what this is. Two grand,” he said. “That's what I was going to look at in Collingwood until I got the call, and I can't afford two grand – that's just the truth.”
Tasse has met people from all walks of life in the new building – which boasts studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom units — and both herself and Desjardins emphasized the sheer importance of developments like the one they now call home.
“Everybody matters. That's how I feel: everybody's entitled to having a home of their own,” Tasse said. “There's stereotypes when these buildings are built, and it's not the case.”
Desjardins agreed.
“The people that I associate with in here and I talk with — everybody's working, everybody's doing their best,” Desjardins said. “These affordable housing (developments), it's so important — like life or death, really.”
Even though the new affordable housing hub has substantially benefited new tenants like Tasse and Desjardins, Tasse also highlighted an ongoing need for rent-geared-to-income housing, where tenants pay a percentage of their overall income as rent, as opposed to a reduced percentage of a unit’s market value.
With a rent-geared-income unit, a tenant like Tasse — who lives on ODSP and Canada Pension — might pay 30 per cent of her income on rent, whereas she pays around “55 to 60” per cent at the new affordable housing complex.
“This is affordable housing and not geared to income housing, so there is a significant difference,” said Tasse, who is still on a list for rent-geared-to-income housing. “In the end, how long is that going to be? This is nice, but it's still not affordable for people who are on ODSP and Canada Pension disability.”
OrilliaMatters submitted questions about the county's affordable housing wait list, when planned services (like childcare) are scheduled to open in the affordable housing hub, and more, but the County of Simcoe did not provide responses prior to publication of this article.
