When the 55 social housing units being built by Wellington County in Fergus open next year, pets are welcome – but officials have yet to decide about smoking.
The Advertiser received a query Monday, wondering if a public building such as the social housing units would allow smoking when the provincial law states that smoking in public buildings is forbidden. The county will own and run the building.
Balanced against that law is a person’s right to engage in legal activities in his own home.
Warden Joanne Ross-Zuj said the question is a good one, and county officials are still pondering what to do.
Director of Housing Heather Burke said in an interview Monday, “We’re still actually discussing it.”
She said pets will be allowed in the one and two-bedroom apartments where rent will be geared to income.
But when it comes to smoking, “We’re having a discussion, because we know it’s an issue out there,” Burke said.
Waiting list started
Ross-Zuj said a number of people have asked her about how to apply for one of the units being completed on Gordon Street in the north end of Fergus.
Burke said the county is in the process of preparing a formal application, but she added that there are already people on a waiting list who had applied using other applications forms for social housing.
“We have some older applications,” Burke said, adding that people can start applying now, even while the new forms are being developed. She said those are available from the county website in the rent-geared-to-income application forms.
The cost of the units has already been set. A one bedroom apartment will rent for $640 per month the first year, and the maximum income the renter can have is $36,000.
For two-bedroom apartments, the rent will be $751 per month and the maximum income allowed is a little over $42,000 a year.
