A spring 2025 occupancy date is still anticipated for an affordable housing development on Maxwell Street in Sarnia after multiple delays.
Manager of Housing Services Melisa Johnson said overall, the 24-unit project is now moving along nicely.
"In the next couple of weeks, we'll have the roof completed and then we'll be moving towards some of the exterior waterproofing, such as siding," she said. "Work inside is progressing nicely. They have the corridors down for the hallways, the units were shipped to site mostly completed, so drywall and flooring is already done."
The project at 993 Maxwell St. was initially expected to begin occupancy in the summer of 2022. However, foundation issues, a delay in the construction of modules, and a contractor change set back the project's timeline.
Husky General Contracting Ltd. was chosen to finish the project and began working on-site in early September of 2024.
Johnson said tenants have not been selected yet as they're waiting until the project is closer to its occupancy date.
"So we will likely be making offers out to tenants for those units in the next, I'll say, month to six weeks," she said. "But we have started the process. We've already issued some expression of interest to tenants and we've collected that data so we have a list that we're going from for those offers."
Johnson said the expression of interest notices were issued to existing social housing tenants to see who is interested in relocating to one of the new Maxwell Street units. The housing services department will then work with the county's homelessness team to house individuals from the By-Name List -- which is a real-time list of every known and consenting individual experiencing homelessness.
"So either individuals in encampments or in shelters will be then offered accommodations in our existing social housing stock. So although the Maxwell project itself isn't tackling the homelessness issue in the community, it will have that domino effect," Johnson said. "We're anticipating moving about nine individuals from shelters or an encampment into County of Lambton owned units."
The county currently has 832 units throughout the municipality.
A previous report said as of August 31, 2024, there were 321 individuals on the By-Name List.
The Maxwell Park Place expansion project was estimated to cost $7 million. However, in September 2024, county council approved an additional $1.7 million in debt financing to complete the project.
