Raising the Roof, a national organization with a plan to build affordable housing in Orillia, has been awarded a $1-million grant through the TD Ready Challenge.
The non-profit housing charity that seeks long-term solutions to homelessness will aim to provide at least 269 people with affordable housing and 160 people with training to begin more lucrative careers through the grant.
Adrian Dingle, the director of housing development for the organization, says Raising the Roof is "proud" to be one of 10 recipients of the grant from across Canada.
"It's going to make a massive difference not only for our capital projects but also in our organization's ability to scale up," he said. "We are going to be using some of the funding to hire a new development team to continually advance our active portfolio of new affordable housing projects."
Dingle says Raising the Roof feels "very fortunate" to receive support from TD Canada Trust.
"A lot of organizations applied across Canada and the U.S.," he said. "We are very happy to receive this because we believe in our motto and the communities that we serve. We are glad to see another organization does as well."
Dingle says capital funding from the grant will help the organization move faster on pre-development plans. He says homelessness is affecting every community across Canada.
"We have a tremendous capacity to make a difference," he said. "We can have a tangible difference in terms of preventing homelessness across Canada."
Dingle says indirectly, the grant will impact the 25 Peter St. N. project in Orillia, which will include 40 affordable housing units atop the Canada Post building.
"We will have an additional staff on our team as a result," he said. "That's going to have an effect on our entire portfolio and give us additional capital to put across our portfolio which will have an impact on Peter Street as well."
Dingle says Raising the Roof is currently in the designing stage of its project on Peter Street.
"We anticipate being able to submit our site plan approval package to Orillia within the next couple of quarters," he said. "That project is also contingent on receiving funding from other locations as well."
Dingle confirms the project is on track for occupancy in the fall of 2025.
