By Roy L Hales

People have either moved, or are moving, into all four new units at the Cortes Island Seniors Village.

Axel Nagory in front of his new home in the Cortes Island Senior's Village - Roy L Hales photo

Moving In

Axel Nagory was the first to move in. He arrived around December 20th and chose one of the corner units, looking out into the forest. The 650 square foot cottage was more than three times the size of the camper Nagory had been living in and possessed more up to date amenities. The faint aroma of fresh paint still lingered inside his new home.

“For me, this is the most perfect house that I can ever dream of,” exclaimed Axel.

The Cortes Community Housing press release for this project says another long-time island Cortes resident moved in on the 20th.

On December 31st, Axel told Cortes Currents that he believed both units in the new duplex beside the Cortes Medical Clinic were occupied and a woman is moving into the last of the new cottages.

Housing Coordinator Sandra Wood subsequently emailed that while all the units have been approved for occupancy, no one is living in the duplex yet.

She added, “We still have work to do on the grounds & final finishing details including installing drapes & landscaping etc.”

The Seniors Village

The four new units are all 650 square feet.

They share a central courtyard with six cottages that were built in 2008/09.

Downtown Mansons Landing is within easy walking distance.

Tenants will pay about $535 a month, but the specific amounts are adjusted to ensure that no one spends more than 30% of their income on rent.

Financing the units

The Cortes Island Senior’s Society provided the land on which these units were built.

Around $100,000 was raised through donations and the provincial government granted another $400,000 through the Building BC program.

BC Housing provided about $1 million in construction financing and annual operating funds.

A message of thanks

The Cortes Community Housing press release contained a message of thanks for:

• “The amazing residents of the Seniors Village who had their much-deserved peace and quiet utterly disrupted by close-in construction for the past seven months.”
• “The countess hours of care and attention to details by the carpenters, their helpers, the experienced sub trades, the guidance of a professional contractor and the back-office staff from Kinetic Construction; together they delivered 4 new seniors cottages on time within all the BC Housing guidelines.”
• “The untold volunteer hours by the directors of both the Senior Society as well as the directors and staff of the Housing Society to get us where we are today.”
• “The overwhelming outpouring of support from every corner of our community who took the time and effort to advocate for the rezoning of (the next phase of affordable housing development) Rainbow Ridge.”
• “The sadness of not being able to provide all the features that we might have preferred. The internal effort required of not permitting perfection be the enemy of the greater good when it came to design choices.”
• “The financial stretches that so many have made to make this project fly, whether it was hosting or creating fundraising events, to donating building materials, to our local loaners and donors without whom we could never have begun this initiative.”

More about Axel

Axel was the only resident visible when Cortes Currents arrived, on December 31st.

His girlfriend lived on Cortes Island in 1999, when Axel first paddled his kayak over from Lund.

He has been a well known Cortes personality for the past 21 years.