In 1999 the Real Estate Foundation approved a grant of $30,000 to support the construction of supportive seniors' housing by the Abbeyfield House Society, St. Paul's Golden. The Foundation was persuaded to award the grant for several reasons, including the practical location of the house; the support of St. Paul's Anglican Church, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and the Town of Golden; and the pressing need for appropriate seniors' housing in Golden.

The article below was written by the Society president for the Abbeyfield Houses Society of Canada Newsletter.

Please address your questions to Society members via the contact information supplied here.

Contact Information
Ken Dimond Abbeyfield House Society, St. Paul's Golden 915 - 9th Street South, Box 2258 Golden, BC V0A 1H0 Phone: 250-344-7430 E-mail: kgdimond@hotmail.com

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Home in the heart of a small B.C. town

We started in the fall of 1992 with a few people needing a residence for aging parents. We applied for and received a start-up grant from BC Housing for $12,000. The society joined Abbeyfield in 1993, went through recessions, forestry downturns, concern for the town's future, three name changes, an alliance with St. Paul's Anglican Church in the fall of 1999 and first residents moving in on Dec 27, 1999. The Church has leased us the land (100' x 120') for 60 years at $1 per year with option for renewal. We in return built a new space in Abbeyfield for their Thrift Shop. They have about 700 square feet on the main floor at the back with another 700 in the basement, accessible through their own space. (There were extra costs associated with a second use in the building, so anyone interested in the idea needs to check them out thoroughly first.) We needed the land, its location and the goodwill associated with a joint project. The land is one block from anything important in Golden and a half block from the only stoplight.

We struggled with three designs for the house, down-sizing each time and changing architects once. The National's book of house designs is a wonderful idea--we would have spent much less on design with such a book available.

The direction that we headed was based on Golden being a small town, not very wealthy and not having any old age housing for Abbeyfield's target market. We felt very strongly that many elderly seniors in Golden would be living only on OAS and the extra assistance available through the two levels of government. They would not be drawing any extra pension benefits, especially the women, many of whom were stay-at-home moms without CPP benefits. With those aims, we consulted many seniors over the years about an appropriate monthly charge and then settled on $800 per month as being acceptable and inclusive. At that price, the benefits from two governments would come in at $1,068 per month, leaving the senior with $268 mad money. Not a lot, but do-able.

Next we established an operating budget, thanks to many Abbeyfield societies. From there we looked at what was left, established our mortgage amount at $325,000 and started raising money. The next serious issue (once the plywood mill stabilized and the town seemed destined to survive) was how to construct the building. We knew that an inferior structure would bankrupt us before long. No one was prepared to go ahead without full assurance regarding the quality of the finished product.

I was able to watch a new contractor to Golden (retirement age) build his own 20-unit apaprtment building directly behind my print shop. He was his own general contractor, as he had been for 40 years previously, but was planning to keep the apartment block for his retirement. He hired, fired, muttered a bit, praised good workmanship, budgeted every purchase and ended up with a very well-constructed building. We wanted him or someone similar as our Project Manager. We asked and he accepted our Abbeyfield House as his final building contract before retirement. He did all our bid work, worked with the architect and engineers, worked through every item on our contractors' bids and then their bills, set up the construction schedule, supervised every segment down to minute details of everything and now sits on our board and is carrying on with any work needing to be done on and in the house. That was our best decision and is a major reason for our present success.

Abbeyfield Ottawa mentioned the environmental work they were required to do. Don't underestimate the costs involved in what seems to be a very minor environmental problem. Here in Golden, the old manse, used as a thrift shop, occupied the Abbeyfield property for 50 years or so and had an oil furnace with a buried fuel oil tank. Once the excavation was started, we were required to have a professional evaluate the soil around the buried oil tank. The tank had been leaking for years, and until the partial foundation was removed (again under the eye of the professional), we could not cost out the extent of the soil contamination. The excavated hole ended up being 22 ft. deep and 80 ft. circular in river gravel. We were able to haul the contaminated gravel to a paving company (for FREE disposal, only trucking costs) just out of town for use in underlayment before paving. Because of much help from many quarters, the whole exercise only cost us about $18,000. Estimates with engineers, farming of soil, etc. are normally double or triple that amount. The clean-up rules are very explicit, tedious, and sometimes ridiculous, but count on it being expensive, and no building permit or mortgage will be available to you without the two environmental reports accepted by each department. National Life, our mortgage lender, decided that they couldn't accept the reports because our professional was not an engineer. The environmental cleanup set us back about six weeks.

We had followed Abbeyfield Canada's advice and had hired Canada ICI to broker our mortgage. Without the continual assistance of Janis Gauthier, we would not have gotten a CMHC insured mortgage, which would have meant no traditional mortgage at all. She handled all our problems with the environmental work, CMHC and the lender, and is still helping us today. The dollars spent were worth it and each successful mortgage that is achieved through Canada ICI should make it easier for the next Abbeyfield House.

After all that, the construction under such a competent Project Manager was almost an anti-climax. That is desirable! One of our board members was an ex-CPR Project Manager who built the coal car shop in Golden and many others. He dropped by daily, and the two men were able to sort out any daily things needing a decision.

We had decided early on that the house should be accessible. If a resident becomes confined to a wheelchair, the house design should not be a deterrent to continued residency. But accessibility can cost a lot of money. The Project Manager had continual disagreements with professionals throughout the construction regarding that issue.

Nonetheless, we still believe that it was an important decision to build accessible, and it has already been useful. The bathrooms have been very successful. We used high-tech showers with large molded seats as part of the entire molded unit. The hand-held shower units can be left at a usual shower height or can be put on another holder closer to the seated person. One resident is able to wash her hair and shower with the lower position of the shower head. She spends about an hour under the shower and gets great pleasure from it. Bathtubs previously frightened her as she felt that she couldn't get up and out of the tub by herself.

The fund raising was and still is an issue. To date we have raised about $480,000, need an additional $120,000 and have $325,000 as our mortgage. It may be that we will have to take out our full approved mortgage of $395,000 and raise our monthly rate to $850, which will reduce our monthly need to about $50,000. A grant of $70,000 was recently refused, and the BC Gaming fund has turned off the tap for assisted housing. (We had applied for $22,000, which we understand was granted to the Vernon House just recently.) These possible changes to our monthly rate will be carefully made in the next month or so. The $480,000 was made up of land value, grants, labour, equipment and materials donations and cash donations from the community. It was all raised in about one year but planned out over previous years. We could not proceed without a stable community and the needed land.

Our marketing was done by a weekly column in both newspapers and press coverage on any event that we could convince them to cover. The name Abbeyfield is definitely a common word among the long-time residents of Golden. So far, when we have an opening, we have filled it within two weeks. We do not have a waiting list, as it seems that people would rather just move in without a list commitment.

Our overall design has worked well, thanks to the available information that we received from Abbeyfield over the years. Our outside plans are still under development but seem to be working well. We built a four-foot roof overhang around the complete building so that, in the slippery months of winter or on rainy days, any resident who wishes can go for a walk at least around the building. One resident knows that 14 times around the building equals a mile and she counts her revolutions to make sure that she exercises enough. The overhang has also eliminated most of the shoveling. As well, the town does plowing of driveways and main walks for seniors, so we do have help.

The Golden Rotary Club and Communities in Bloom have taken over the summer outside work. Because of their hard work, we have nice curved curbs with pavers for walkways. They built 36" x 18" flower boxes at accessible heights so that each residenth as one outside their window and can plant and care for their own or can have it done for them. The main plantings at the front will be completed next spring. Although we greatly appreciate the brand new 150 feet of public sidewalk that the town built throughout June, it could not be started early enough and held up our work so that it couldn't be completed this year. St. Paul's Anglican Church next door has a huge area for landscaping. They spent time and effort this year making a circular flower bed with 4 benches around it and a pathway joining our sidewalk. The residents really enjoy all the gardens that are possible.

In closing, I think that one main decision has made the finished house most successful and that is the location. The time spent waiting for the Church involvement was worth the wait. The location is within one block of the library, hospital, medical clinic, two dentists, massage therapist, police, government agent, town hall, public health nurse, restaurant, two motels, shops, four churches, the Civic Centre, 24-hour convenience store and the only stoplight in town. To say the least, it is central, but it still feels residential.

We expect that by this time next year, we'll be running much smoother and have many of the start-up problems ironed out. It's been hard but rewarding work with good support from the community. We'd like to give thanks to the Abbeyfield Societies who have been so generous throughout the years and, of course, to Bob McMullan, whose unending enthusiasm helps keep us all going, and to Abbeyfield Canada who manage to keep enough dollars in their fund to keep their operation available to us and to the BC Chapter who have the original Canadian Houses. We couldn't have done it without all of you. Thank you.

Merle McKnight - President AHS, SPG
The Board and House Committee
The Residents and House Parents of Abbeyfield House, St. Paul's Golden