The Coverdale Centre for Women on Waterloo Street in Saint John. (Image: Ben Burnett)
It may seem like a long shot, but some community-minded folks are hoping Saint John can raise $400,000 by March 18 to help save a transitional housing project.
The Coverdale Centre for Women secured $2 million last summer to build a 12-unit building in Waterloo Village. The land was given to the organization.
Between inflation and the sky-rocketing price of building materials, the project is $400,000 short. If the shortfall is not covered, all of the project funding would be lost.
Julia Woodhall-Melnik, an associate professor of social science at UNB Saint John, learned about the shortfall last week and started a GoFundMe fundraiser on the advice of her students.
Woodhall-Melnik said staff at the Coverdale Centre were aware of the shortfall about six weeks ago and have tried every avenue they could think of to find more funds.
Another complication is the federal funding has rules which mean the property can’t have any loans or liens for 20 years.
“It has to serve that traditional housing purpose for the next twenty years. So the issue is, we can’t go out and get a mortgage, we can’t go out and get a loan,” Woodhall-Melnik said.
Woodhall-Melnik said this transitional housing project is different in that most have a time limit for the people who are living there.
“For this particular project, they didn’t put a time limit on it. So if a woman’s transition is 20 years, it’s 20 years. She can stay. It’s a great advantage for our community and a new approach to looking at how we house people and the time we give them,” Woodhall-Melnik said.
Woodhall-Melnik said we might not always have a lot, but Saint John has really got heart.
“We really care about our neighbours and we take of our community. We take care of each other. I hope we can find the money and I hope we can start [the project] in April. When we break ground and once the building is up there, I hope everyone in Saint John can walk by this building and think ‘This was a community effort. We pushed to get this here. We came through at the 11th hour,'” Woodhall-Melnik said.
I'm raising money for Transitional Housing for Women in Shelters in SJ. Click to Donate: https://t.co/u6r2hUHgOf #GoFundMe #WeNeedHousing
— Julia Woodhall-Melnik (@JuliaWoodhall) March 3, 2022
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