Two hundred units of non-market housing will shelter low income people who may be plagued by mental illness and addictions. They will live alongside 350 units of market housing made up of lofts and condominiums.
On the street level, non-profit community organizations will be given spaces to knit the neighbourhood together.
But some people now in the area are skeptical:
"People don't want to move into this neighbourhood to learn about the people down here," said Muggs Sigurgeirson, vice president of the Carnegie Centre Association, a community centre and meeting place for homeless people and drug users.
"They want a good housing deal. And then they want to protect their investment and want their property value to go up, so they fight to push homeless people out."
There may be some reason for concern, but there should also be a counterweight in that the upper-class people buying into the project will presumably be ones who are more receptive to living closer to poverty.
Of course, that fact may dampen the positive effect as well - rather than creating much intermingling between people who otherwise would not plan to live near each other, the project will merely provide a gathering point for people who don't see class as too much of an issue, as well as offering some opportunities for neighbourhood development. That's progress for sure, but it's a long way from raising sufficient awareness of poverty issues.
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