County approves $1M in funding for Conestoga Crest project

MAPLETON – More local seniors will be able to age in place with the construction of a new housing facility for seniors. 

The Conestoga Crest Seniors Living project will be supported by $1 million in recently-approved funding from Wellington County.

Conestoga Crest chairperson Keith McIntosh and county Warden Chris White attended a May 26 Mapleton meeting to announce the approved funding and provide an update on the project. 

The 40-unit, three-storey facility in Drayton will include one- and two-bedroom units as well as studio suites. 

The county funding was initially part of $7 million set aside for a now-cancelled Continuum of Care project in Aboyne, which was set to house as many as 400 people. 

When that project fell through, the county opted to divvy the funds up between its seven lower-tier municipalities to support affordable housing. 

“We could have just returned it to social services for regular housing,” said White.

“But we thought with each of the townships trying to struggle and come up with some innovative ways to come up with housing, we just thought ‘give everybody a million bucks.’

“It’s seed money,” he noted: “I mean what does a million bucks get you, a set of stairs?” 

White said the county is trying to be as flexible as possible “to make sure this money can get out the door and bring some housing in.”  

Conestoga Crest has been providing care for Drayton seniors since 1983, McIntosh told Mapleton council. 

“We are a proven operator – we’ve got 32 units now, which are in very, very high demand ... often people don’t leave their name on the waiting list because there is too much of a demand.” 

McIntosh said the county funding is instrumental in enabling the project to move forward, as is the money Conestoga Crest will fundraise through the local community. 

Conestoga Crest will also apply for provincial and federal funding, he said. 

“We’ve got an opportunity to really do something in these communities that’s going to serve for the next 50 to 70 years,” McIntosh said.  

He thanked Mapleton  council and Mayor Gregg Davidson, CAO Manny Baron and director of finance Patrick Kelly for their leadership and support.

“It was an absolute pleasure to move through to where we are today,” said McIntosh.

Conestoga Crest has now selected an architect to complete the up-front work, McIntosh said, and is “moving forward with engineering too.” 

White and Davidson both said the project looks “fantastic.” 

Davidson said a couple years ago, McIntosh came to him with an idea for a 20-unit facility, but the plan has now doubled in size.

“[That] is fantastic for the community – and it’s all because of this $1 million from the County of Wellington program that was provided to the township so that we could actually do something in our community for seniors,” the mayor said.