Single mothers and children will have a chance to put down roots in Queensborough.
New Westminstercity council recently rezoned 630 Ewen Ave. and changed the official community plan’s land-use designation for the site to allow a five-unit affordable housing project to be built on the city-owned property.
“The applicant is proposing to develop and manage independent family housing that will be affordable and designed for single mothers and their children, “said Jackie Teed, the city’s acting director of development services.
Lorrie Wasyliw, executive director of Women in Need Gaining Strength, said WINGS is excited about the opportunity of integrating the tenants and the building into the vibrant Queensborough community. It has operated two facilities for women and children in New West for nearly two decades.
“Our focus is to support women and children who are seeking to begin new lives after experiencing domestic violence,” she said. “We are really appreciative of this opportunity to partner with the City of New Westminster to create five units of affordable housing for our client families.”
Coun. Patrick Johnstone is pleased the city is taking steps to create affordable housing in New West.
“It’s frankly a small contribution. It’s not the solution to our housing affordability crisis in the region, but it is the beginning of a series of projects the city is involved in and is getting involved in in order to do what we can with limited resources and with the funds that have been put aside by the city to support affordable housing,” he said. “I think this is a great-looking project. I am glad that we have a very worthy partner who is going to be locating in this location.”
Johnstone believes the location is well-suited for the project as it’s close to schools, sports facilities, a park, transit and the Queensborough Community Centre.
“Queensborough is a growing, family-friendly area. We haven’t solved all of the needs of Queensborough, but we are on our way,” he said. “It is a happening neighbourhood.”
Mayor Jonathan Cote said the affordable housing task force identified two parcels of city-owned land, including the site on Ewen Avenue, as potential locations for small affordable housing projects.
“You can’t really go anywhere in our region without the topic of housing and affordability coming up,” he said. “I know this is only one small project but I think that’s how you are going to address the issue of affordable housing in the region – it’s by taking on small policies, small projects like this that will all work together to help address the larger issue we have to deal with.”
