London breaks ground on city's first new public housing build in decades

Construction on a major development project aimed at updating a more than 50-year-old public housing community in London's southeast end officially got underway on Wednesday.

Officials with London and Middlesex Community Housing (LMCH) held a groundbreaking ceremony at 1057 Southdale Rd. E. late Wednesday morning to mark the start of construction on a planned six-storey, 53-unit residential building set to open in the summer of 2025.

The building will be the first phase of the three-phase project, dubbed Reimagine Southdale, with three mid-rise buildings planned for the community that's currently home to more than 500 people.

The new buildings will include a mix of one to four-bedroom units that are rent-geared to income, affordable, and market-rate. They replace 18 townhouses dating from 1971 that were demolished in December. Tenants were moved to other units or other LMCH properties, LMCH says.

The new building will be the first that the city-owned LMCH, previously known as London Middlesex Housing Corporation, has built in more than five decades. The agency operates nearly 3,300 units in 32 properties across the city, with an average age of just over 50 years.

According to Paul Chisholm, LMCH's CEO, the Reimagine Southdale project is part of a larger push to bring those existing properties to an improved standard.

"We know that we have an aging stock, so (we're) starting to replace it incrementally, using our existing land stock, hooking into existing infrastructure and existing communities… intensifying and improve and increase the amount of affordable housing options available," Chisholm told CBC News.

Work on the Reimagine Southdale project has been underway for four years, he said. The first phase of the project, the 53-unit building, will cost roughly $30 million dollars, with funding secured as part of the city's 2020-23 multi-year budget, according to LMCH.

"We recently received funding approval for phase two… so we may be breaking ground on that next year. And then phase three will be a few years down the road," Chisholm said. In all, the three phases will add 99 net new units to the complex.

Eleven of the 53 units in the first building will be fully accessible, Chisholm says, and the building will include a community space on the main floor, a common kitchen, a small programming space, laundry facilities on each floor, and central air conditioning.

Existing townhouses will see new siding, roof, and outdoor improvements, LMCH says.

Mayor Josh Morgan, who was present for the groundbreaking along with Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis and Ward 1 Councillor Hadleigh McAlister, said the new buildings would help city hall's efforts to deal with London's housing crisis.

"Providing affordable housing for all is not just a goal, but a moral imperative. The Reimagine Southdale Project marks a significant step forward in our commitment to ensuring every Londoner has a place to call home," he said in a statement.