Cornwall Council accepts housing auction in Morrisburg and raises cost concerns

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Cornwall Council on Tuesday approved awarding the bid for a new subsidized housing project in Morrisburg, but not before several at the table raised concerns about its rising costs.

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The bid for construction at Glen Morris Court — awarded to DC & F Corp. of Toronto for a total price of $8,773,500 — is about $3.5 million more than the original estimate brought to council.

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“It’s a huge increase,” Coun. Fred Ngoundjo called before what was a 9-1 vote. “We’re spending a lot of taxpayer money on this, and I’m not going to support the motion.”

Director General of Human Services and Long-Term Care Mellissa Morgan said the first report to the board was based on the cost of one-bedroom units built for the Ninth Street building in Cornwall, but Morris Glen Court went to two-bedroom units. and of course the costs of inflation are a factor.

Phase 1 of this project will result in the construction of 17 two-bedroom units in a three-storey building adjacent to an existing social housing estate. The property is located on the south side of County Road 2, which Cornwall owns, called Morris Glen Court Apartments.

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The current Glen Morris site is home to 30 one-bedroom units for older people and the property was selected for the capital project after being identified as an ideal location in the recently published Housing and Social Services Housing Revitalization Plan 2020, thanks to proximity to grocery stores. , schools, existing housing customers and some major employers.

On a more philosophical level, Ngoundjo said he was very puzzled as to why Cornwall was spending a lot of money on housing outside the urban area in the SDG communities.

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The City of Cornwall became the designated housing service manager for both the city and SDG when these services were offloaded from the provincial government in the 1990s. While funding to cover the cost of housing support provided to tenants is provided to the city by to the province, the administration of the service is funded by the city and the SDG and divided according to where the geographical units are located.

The report reflects that – currently – just over 77 per cent of housing stock is in Cornwall; the agreement was last renegotiated five years ago and is up for renewal this year.

Cornwall ends up doing more than its share of the financial heavy lifting in this matter, explained CAO Mathieu Fleury. He said that while SDG pays the same amount for operations related to the total amount of housing units, the debt issued to cover the projects is on the city’s books.

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“(Cornwall administration leaders) are engaged with the province on this matter,” Fleury told council.

“I’m not happy to borrow $5 million to build housing outside of Cornwall, but we are financially obligated by the service contract,” Coun. Dean Hollingsworth said.

On the other hand, it is also the city that receives federal-provincial funding to support this and other recent projects. Phase I of the Morris Glen Court expansion received $1,694,202 in funding from the Social Services Relief Fund (SSRF). It will also use $575,000 from the social housing – regeneration reserve. Cornwall will borrow the remaining funds to mortgage the construction, provincial funding and residents’ rents going toward those mortgage payments.

The 17 units will be built, five with ground floor access (of which four will be barrier-free), with six units on each of the second and third floors. Five of the units will be rented at defined market rates, with the others available as income-adjusted rental units.

The construction timeline is currently targeted to begin in late spring and be completed by the fall of 2025.

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