{"id":34953,"date":"2024-08-15T13:07:52","date_gmt":"2024-08-15T17:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=34953"},"modified":"2024-08-15T13:07:54","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T17:07:54","slug":"blue-door-moves-forward-with-deeply-affordable-townhouses-at-kevins-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/blue-door-moves-forward-with-deeply-affordable-townhouses-at-kevins-place\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Door moves forward with \u201cdeeply affordable\u201d townhouses at Kevin\u2019s Place"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cDeeply affordable\u201d housing options are coming to York Region through a new build by Blue Door Shelters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, Blue Door was \u201cthrilled\u201d to receive word they had received a Minister\u2019s Zoning Order (MZO) that have formal approval to the construction of a 14-unit stacked townhouse development, Newmarket\u2019s Kevin\u2019s Place, that will serve the \u201ccommunity\u2019s most vulnerable people experiencing homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Homelessness, according to Blue Door, doesn\u2019t know borders, and this new development will have impacts across northern York Region, says Blue Door CEO Michael Braithwaite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are incredibly grateful for the MZO approval, which allows us to move forward swiftly with this vital project,\u201d he said. \u201cOur goal is to provide high-quality, affordable housing to those who need it most and this development is a big step towards that mission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new construction will be purpose-built and serve as a replacement to Kevin\u2019s Place\u2019s current site, which currently occupies a converted single-family home that has stood for more than 100 years. Once complete, the 14 stacked townhomes will offer a variety of accessible configurations of up to three-bedroom housing options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn our minds, we all have these imaginary borders between cities and towns in York Region and people will go wherever the housing services are,\u201d Braithwaite tells The Auroran. \u201cIf we do something at Blue Door, it\u2019s not so much that this is for Newmarket, Aurora or Georgina\u2026but how do we best serve our most vulnerable in the Region. We have a tiny house that was never purposely built for shelter or housing supports [so] we\u2019re going to take that down and the opportunity to put up 14 stacked townhomes\u2026will serve the entire Region really, really well. There\u2019s such a need for deeply affordable and dignified housing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new build will help take people off York Region\u2019s \u201chuge\u201d affordable housing waiting list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s estimated that the new Kevin\u2019s Place will cost approximately $8 million and Blue Door has been working with all levels of government to secure whatever funding they can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very hopeful we will get the funding we need and hope to have shovels in the ground to start the building process by the end of the year,\u201d says Braithwaite. \u201cBy the end of 2024, from there it\u2019s anywhere between 18 and 24 months of construction. In the meantime, with the program we run, we will have another home that we can run that program out of so we don\u2019t miss a beat and don\u2019t displace anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the government dollars, Blue Door\u2019s Kevin\u2019s Place project also received a financial boost this summer from Magna International. Blue Door, and specifically this project, were one of the beneficiaries of the 2024 Magna Community Fund, a pot of money dedicated for local non-profits which took the place of fundraising dollars previously raised each year during the auto parts giant\u2019s now-defunct Wild West Hoedown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving that contribution to say, \u2018Look, we have support from our own community to make this happen\u2019 from generous groups like Magna goes a long way,\u201d says Braithwaite. \u201cThey need to see that there has been success already and will be more than likely to get on board. I think it really has been a catalyst to keep things going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe own the land, we\u2019re raising $1 million, we put a lot of our own money into getting to a certain point before funders will even look at the project, and Magna supported us by getting that done. We couldn\u2019t have done it without them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDeeply affordable\u201d housing options are coming to York Region through a new build by Blue Door Shelters. Last month, Blue Door was \u201cthrilled\u201d to receive word they had received a Minister\u2019s Zoning Order (MZO) that have formal approval to the construction of a 14-unit stacked townhouse development, Newmarket\u2019s Kevin\u2019s Place, that will serve the \u201ccommunity\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-95L","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 09:44:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34953\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}