The Directors of Elliot Lake Retirement Living (ELRL) learned at their January annual meeting at Elliot Lake's Hampton Inn that Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) had rejected ELRL's bid for financing of the planned Spine Road affordable housing apartment complex.
The ELRL Board was told the organization received the announcement from CMHC just prior to the meeting.
In response, ELRL General Manager Rhona Guertin wrote to ElliotLakeToday, "We were disappointed our application for financing for the project was not approved. Our application was one of many that were received and (rejected) due to an over-subscription to the pool of funding. Priority was given to projects in larger markets that had significant shortages of affordable housing. Though we did not receive approval under this one particular pool of funds, we were given several other options to consider."
Guertin continued, "We have been working closely with our development team and our contact at CMHC to find the best possible financing solution for our project. It does take some time to work through all of our options, but, this project is too important to Elliot Lake for us to give up so quickly."
"Our role is to provide affordable housing and benefit to our local economy and we believe that the time is right for a project like this. It may take us a bit more time to run all of our options to ground but it will be time well spent." concluded Guertin.
Elliot Lake Councillors who are board members and attended the January board meeting are Mayor Dan Marchisella and Coun. Norman Mann.