Group to renovate five Sudbury homes to create affordable housing

Raising the Roof is bringing its Reside program, which turns vacant homes into affordable housing, to Sudbury.

Officials said five homes will be divided into two units each, housing 10 families in total.

"There’s 235,000 Canadians who are experiencing homelessness every night and it’s all of our responsibility to do something about that," said Marc Soberano, executive director of Raising the Roof.

"It’s important to spread awareness and to raise funds because it’s so hard for someone … to move their life forward if they don’t have somewhere to live."

All the renovations will be completed by a contracting company called Community Builders North.

Raising the Roof said the company was chosen because it can take on the work and also will hire and train people.

"It’s hard to find a contractor and there’s a shortage of skilled labour and … there’s also a lot of people looking for work," said Soberano.

"Now these houses have started to catalyze this new organization, which is going to be able to live on in Sudbury after these houses are built and continue to provide access to construction jobs for community members.”

Greater Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger said the city is looking forward to working with the organization now and in years to come. He said getting families into the homes is vital.

"Obviously this is another step in providing affordable housing opportunities within our community that are so desperately needed," Bigger said.

"We see the struggle on the streets and in our downtown and throughout the community. So, we continue to bring council together and these are the types of decisions that council makes that get unanimous support."

The renovations begin in the spring and the plan is to have people living in the homes by the end of the year.