A new chapter in the life of Belleville’s Aldersgate Village was announced Tuesday afternoon.
About 100 people, many of them current residents of the seniors’ affordable housing community in Belleville’s
west end, celebrated the Village’s 40th anniversary while at the same time hearing that more seniors’ apartments were on the way.
Aldersgate Village currently has an 87-unit seniors’ apartment building off Aldersgate Drive plus several townhouse-style units and soon construction will begin on a three-storey 84-unit building immediately south of the existing building on vacant land owned by Aldersgate Homes Inc., a non-profit organization whose volunteer Board of Directors are members of the Wesleyan and Free Methodist Churches of Canada.
Some of those gathering under a tent at Aldersgate Village Tuesday September 20/22. (Photo: Quinte News)
The new building will be known as Epworth Place, named after the town founder of the Methodist Christian faith John Wesley was born in in England in the early 1700s.
Epworth Place will feature 54 one-bedroom apartments, and 30 two-bedroom units. Thirty-eight apartments will be market rent while 46 will be designated as affordable units. The building will feature common rooms with the surrounding property providing pathways and concourses linking the entire community.
The cost to build is estimated to be $19 million, with Hastings County providing almost $1 million in support to provide affordable housing. The Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation, through affordable housing programs, will provide most of the funding to be paid back over time.
The current Aldersgate Village grew up in three phases, beginning in 1982, with more apartments added in 1992, and garden homes in 2002. Now, phase four begins in 2022. Aldersgate Village Administrator Amy Elliott said there was push back from Sidney Township council and officials when the project was first brought to them over 40 years ago (the land was part of Sidney Township before amalgamation with Belleville) but the church leaders and others would not take no for an answer.
The Village’s mission is to “provide safe, affordable housing for seniors as an expression of Christian love serving the physical, social and spiritual needs of residents.”
Welcoming the new project were Bay of Quinte riding MPP Todd Smith, Belleville Councillor Kelly McCaw, Hastings County Warden Rick Phillips, and Ingrid Moore on behalf of Bay of Quinte riding MP Ryan Williams.
All acknowledged the great need for more affordable housing and especially for seniors.
In an over hour-long ceremony filled with laughter and a moving visual tribute to Aldersgate Village’s last 40 years the Board of Directors also paid special recognition to Administrator Amy Elliott and Maintenance Manager Don Fobert. Elliott has served 27 years with organization and Fobert 30.
Construction of Epworth Place should begin late this year or early next year.
(Photo: Quinte News)
Bay of Quinte riding MPP Todd Smith with Aldersgate Village Administrator Amy Elliott. (Photo: Twitter/Todd Smith)
