Ground was broken Monday on an affordable housing project in northwest Edmonton whose builders say will one day fill a gap in the local market. When completed in 2028, Diamond at Dunluce at 365 Dunluce Rd. NW will consist of 96 affordable homes ranging in size from two to five bedrooms for a total of 290 bedrooms. Three quarters of the units will be offered at a below-market rate, discounted between 20 and 50 per cent. “The largest bedroom development will be approximately 2,700 square feet, so what we’re really aiming (for) is to serve larger families and multi-generational families,” said Build Edmonton Homes CEO Gord Johnston in an interview. According to Build Edmonton Homes, the affordable housing division of Edmonton’s Vivid Homes, and partner IslamicFamily, larger families on average wait four years for an affordable home in Edmonton, the longest of any demographic. “Those are four years where their kids are getting punted from school to school, the family is under tremendous pressure, and if we don’t address that issue, we’re actually leading to generational poverty,” said Omar Yaqub, servant of servants with IslamicFamily. He recalled a woman fleeing domestic violence coming to IslamicFamily for help while caring for both her parents and children. “The city needs something like 8,100 two-bedroom units. We need something like 9,000 three-plus-bedroom units. Those numbers sound roughly comparable until you actually factor in occupancy. Once you factor in occupancy, you see that the number of three-plus bedroom units impacts double the number of people, and specifically impacts really young kids (and) really vulnerable populations.” Diamond at Dunluce will consist of four four-storey buildings with a footprint of 14,586 square metres. The project received grants from the Alberta Housing Partnership Program and the municipal government, as well as the land through the city’s surplus school site program. It is being built using a halal financing model, which is sometimes called fairer financing. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Evan Klippenstein
