Around 20 people attended the official grand opening for the City of Brantford’s newest affordable housing development, Lucy Marco Place, on Wednesday, October 9, 2024.
Once the home of the City’s YMCA, the building was most recently, a Wilfrid Laurier University student residence.
With the intent to provide safe and stable housing for some of Brantford’s most vulnerable citizens, the municipality purchased Lucy Marco Place from Laurier in 2022 and has since repurposed the six-storey building to hold 41 affordable housing units (six of which are accessible) for individuals and families on the affordable housing waitlist.
Having identified those on the list who are most in need, Brantford’s Housing and Homelessness staff will soon begin moving the tenants into the new units in the coming weeks.
Unlike emergency shelters, the development will offer both transitional and permanent housing solutions with embedded supports to help residents transition successfully and maintain stable living environments.
Kevin Davis, Mayor for the City of Brantford, said the new development marked a significant milestone for the community.
“Every building symbolizes something, and what I think this symbolizes is hope and stability for families who are really facing immense challenges,” Davis said. “…With the 41-units here, we have a permanent solution, not a temporary shelter, a permanent solution, providing safe and secure housing in our community for those most in need.”
David Bailey, Mayor for the County of Brant, said he was glad to be a part of the project and that the building will help take pressure off of people and will give them a place to settle.
“This is the real deal, this is what we’ve been saying we’re trying to do for a long time and what it does is it takes pressure off of people,” added Bailey. “…It lets them be stable and it lets them live whatever the quality of life is going to be after they move in here. It lets them stop and settle and have a home and an address.”
Mary Musson, Senior Director of Community Services and Social Development for the City of Brantford, said the building is a testament to what can happen when community partners collaborate.
“I’m very proud to be able to stand here today and offer my sincere thanks to everyone who has made this project a reality. These 41 individual units are the next step in a journey for 41 families,” said Musson. “Lucy Marco place is what can happen when the community partners collaborate. Along with the City, SOAR Community Services and Why Not City Missions will be providing support to families who reside at Lucy Marco place, who are actively engaged in their programs. With these partnerships, what we are demonstrating as a community, is the commitment to provide ongoing support for the families in both Brantford and the County of Brant so that they’re not only successfully housed, but so they have the necessary supports to thrive. That is what we want.”
Musson said that for many, the building will allow those in need to focus on what is important to them.
“Finding safe and appropriate shelter is an insurmountable struggle,” she said. “By being able to provide these beautifully renovated units, these families can now start focusing on what is important to them, reconnecting with their family members, children, parents, siblings, and completing the necessary requirements to not only secure ongoing income, but by becoming a community member. Being able to feel safe and secure in appropriate housing is the first step to this.”
Lucy Marco, Executive Director of the Grand River Council on Aging and a long-time affordable housing advocate who the building was named after, said she was thrilled to see the building’s transformation.
“When the university decided that they didn’t need the building anymore and it was going up for sale, I was praying, just praying, that it would be used for housing and my prayers were answered, and here we are,” Marco admitted. “I had a tour before I came in here and I’m absolutely thrilled with what I saw today. I know that the work of the staff, the contractors and everybody involved, is going to be so much of the future of the tenants that live here.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
