Aboriginal housing organization
Wigwamen has given $250,000 to support the 50 units being set aside for aboriginal women and their children in the new
YWCA Elm Centre.
Wigwamen, a non-profit in operation since 1972, usually builds and owns its own properties, including a 103-unit seniors building at Spadina and Bloor, and a 92-unit community in Malvern. They currently run a total of 405 units in Toronto.
"Although it's nice to own units," says Angus Palmer, Wigwamen's general manager, "it's more important to us that we guarantee access to affordable housing units for the aboriginal community."
Wigwamen will continue to accept, screen and process the applications for the units, and will then hand over the likely candidates' names to YWCA, who will be making the final determination of who gets the units, which will be rented out at a rate of about 30 per cent of the woman's monthly income.
The YWCA, which will be running the facility when it's completed around May, 2011, has put $15 million of its own into the whole project, which was designed by
Hilditch Architects and
Regional Architects.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Angus Palmer
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