Controversial rapid housing projects gets underway near Sydney heritage district

A controversial rapid housing project is getting underway in the historical north-end neighbourhood of Sydney, N.S.

New Dawn Enterprises is putting up an apartment building that will house 25 people experiencing homelessness or mental health and addictions issues.

Some area residents have opposed its location just outside Sydney's heritage district, which contains buildings that date back to 1785. But project manager Alyce MacLean said New Dawn is trying to make the building blend into the neighbourhood.

"It's going to be a big building and it's certainly an apartment building, but we did our best in the design to sort of complement or call back to some of those more historical design elements of the north end of Sydney," she told CBC's Information Morning Cape Breton.

"The siding is kind of blocked almost to mimic as if it were row houses or something and the windows sort of have the crosses in the windowpane frame and all of those elements."

The building will have 25 one-bedroom units and a common kitchen area with a TV room and other rooms for programming or services.

It will be L-shaped, creating a private courtyard for the tenants, MacLean said.

"As an organization, we feel pretty honoured to be able to have this land and this space, and in particular a beautiful courtyard that we're able to offer to people who have had probably a really hard go finding a dignified, safe place to live in the past."

The project had originally been slated for a different neighbourhood that is strictly residential and located away from transit and other services, but Cape Breton Regional Municipality councillors voted it down earlier this year.

Faced with the prospect of losing $5 million in federal funding from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, council approved New Dawn's north end location, behind the former Holy Angels High School, partly because it is closer to the services tenants might need.

New Dawn is working with the Ally Centre of Cape Breton, which runs an overdose prevention site and harm-reduction centre in the nearby downtown district.

MacLean said the Ally Centre will have at least two staff members working in the new apartment building around the clock to help tenants adjust to housing and to provide information or other resources they may need.

"These are individuals who need a lot of support with, perhaps, activities of daily living, so it could be a whole host of supports that they're giving people," she said.

New Dawn is hoping the building will be ready for occupancy by mid-November of next year and the agency has created an online dashboard to keep the public abreast of developments as they happen.

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