Duane Hicks
Some north-end residents are against a proposed zoning amendment on York Avenue to allow the Fort Frances Native Urban Wahkaihganun Corp. to build a new six-unit apartment complex, next to the existing 10-unit one.
Two of them, Amy Marchuk and George Bliss, spoke in opposition of the re-zoning at Monday night’s council meeting.
Marchuk said she recently saw a woman walking up the subway with three children in tow—each carrying groceries—and it prompted her to speak against the new apartments.
She took a look at a rental application for the apartments, and noted it is geared to families, single-parent families, seniors, and individuals who have no other alternative but to escape to emergency shelters to escape violence (physical or mental grief).
It also is for those without housing through no fault of their own, families whose residence has been destroyed and have no place to live, and families that have no alternative but to separate and seek accommodations elsewhere.
“This housing is obviously geared for people that are already at a disadvantage,” noted Marchuk.
“The town and the owners of the land are going to be putting them at a further disadvantage and will be doing them a disservice,” she argued.
Many of the families have small children who already are feeling isolated due to their circumstances, she added.
This location only will isolate them more as not all of the families have vehicles.
Marchuk pointed out the neighbourhood is nowhere near any schools, nor is it close to the library, arena, and pool, or grocery stores.
“Try getting around without a vehicle and no bus service,” she said.
“Yes, there is the Dial-A-Ride, but you have to pre-arrange a pick-up time and that just doesn’t cut it when your child misses the bus or the bus is cancelled due to inclement weather and you have to get yourself to work.”
Marchuk said if the town or another organization were to build an apartment building across from the lagoon for people without these disadvantages, tenants could choose not to rent there.
But if she was a woman in certain circumstances in need of housing, she would have no choice.
“It is plain and simply a poor choice of location, and to further add apartments to it is inconceivable to me,” Marchuk stressed.
“Yet these families have no choice when they are told that that is where they have to live if they want a roof over their heads, and a safe and secure place for their children to sleep.”
There is no doubt a need for such housing, but building a new apartment building for people—many without the means of transportation—in the north end, especially by the lagoon, is “unkind, uncaring, and it is beyond me why,” she remarked.
Marchuk said if this is the only place a new apartment can be built, at least the town could bring back a public bus service so it won’t be such a hardship for those without vehicles.
Bliss, meanwhile, said there are several reasons the new apartments should not be built—one being that he feels the infrastructure in the neighbourhood is not adequate.
Citing a study done two years ago by Uni-Jet Industrial Pipe Services, there is at least a 12-inch drop in the sewer line by the manhole just down the street from his house at 1020 York Ave.
At times, raw sewage has backed up into his basement—and even his kitchen, bathroom sink, and tub.
All of the houses built by Fort Frances Native Urban Wahkaihganun Corp. to the north of his years ago were built at a higher grade, using the excavation material from the digging of the basements to build up the properties, noted Bliss.
This means that water flows from those properties to residences to the south.
“We should not be forced to take their run-off water,” he argued.
Bliss also has concerns about the ditches and drainage, as well as the upkeep of the Wahkaihganun properties’ yards and the build-up of garbage in them.
He said he doesn’t feel the most recent apartments should have been built in the first place, and any further re-zoning of the properties should be held off until problems such as drainage, brush, undergrowth, grass, and garbage are dealt with on a permanent basis.
Bliss mentioned many of the properties seem to be in violation of town bylaws and wondered why they town hasn’t done anything about it?
The information brought forth at Monday’s meeting now will be considered, said Mayor Roy Avis.
Council will make its decision when it votes on the zoning amendment bylaw at its next meeting (May 27).
Neil Kabel, manager of native housing for Wahkaihganun Futures Corp., said funding is in place to go ahead with building the new apartment complex.
The 10-unit complex, located at 237 Eighth St. W., was completed Dec. 10.
It is now at full accommodation, and there is demand for more housing.
