Rainbow Community Non-Profit Housing continues effort to save school

The housing corporation focused on saving an Espanola school is not giving up its fight.

The Rainbow Community Non-Profit Housing group has been trying to save AB Ellis Public School since the Rainbow District School Board announced back in 2014 that they would be demolishing it to turn into a parking lot.

Housing chair Cat Ashton says last week’s announcement that the government would provide nearly $3 million to do just that came as a shock.

She says the group has made numerous presentations and appeals to the board to preserve the building for purchase and conversion into apartments.

Ashton says the group plans to continue pressuring the Town of Espanola and the Manitoulin Sudbury District Services Board to get involved because of its potential to meet urgently needed housing.

She emphasizes the group has carried out architectural, engineering and financial stability studies that clearly demonstrate the viability of converting the building into 44 new one- and- two-bedroom apartments.

She adds that nearly $3 million dollars could be put to better use in retrofitting the building for housing rather than using tax dollars to tear down a building that still has many years of life in it.

Rainbow Community Housing says there are many reasons they continue to advocate for preservation.

1. The group says independent architectural, engineering, and financial viability studies indicate the building is in very good condition and could be converted into up to 44 one- and two-bedroom apartments.
2. They say converting the building is cheaper and greener than new construction, adding high-end estimates for converting the AB Ellis building to 44 apartments land at between $225,000 and $250,000 a unit.
3. In late 2020 a social media survey asked people to indicate their interest in living in an AB Ellis apartment. Of the nearly 100 people who said they would seriously want to live there, over 50 were lower-income seniors, disabled people and/or sole support parents urgently needing safe and reliable housing.
4. The group says federal funding agencies and programs are aware of the affordable housing potential of the former school building, adding as recently as February 2022, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation suggested feasible financing arrangements. Rainbow Community Non-profit Housing says it has very positive and promising relations with these funding agencies, but to be eligible for funding it needs cooperation from the Rainbow District School Board.
5. The group also says there is a 239-person waiting list for affordable one-bedroom apartments in this area, and there are no accessible affordable units for disabled people. The group adds the Town of Espanola does not have a plan to increase the stock of affordable housing. According to the group converting the school into urgently needed rental housing is still possible, but it requires that RDSB and the Town of Espanola work with Rainbow Community Housing. As a first critical step, it says it needs the Town to get behind the project.

Anyone wishing to lend their support is asked to contact Cat Ashton 705-863-0391 or Lynne Dee Sproule 613-402-2334.