Miracle on London Street (6 photos)

In Ontario's first social housing project of its kind, 48 London St. in Sault Ste. Marie has been quietly renovated using labour supplied by Ontario Works training programs.

"It's a really cool little project," says Mike Nadeau, chief executive officer of Sault Ste. Marie Social Services Administration Board.

"Two years ago, we went to an AMO [Association of Municipalities of Ontario] conference. We presented to the minister of municipal affairs and housing, a concept where we wanted to look at buying derelict buildings, houses in areas of the town which had declining assessment. We wanted to purchase those, use Ontario Works training programs to fix the houses up."

"This is our first project," Nadeau said.

The Ontario government provided $900,000 to buy houses and make capital improvements.

The work at 48 London is now complete and the house will be sold to a low-income family with Social Services guaranteeing the mortgage for the first five years.

Equity in the home will be the family's down payment.

"So we're going to have a family that will go from Ontario Works to social housing to home ownership, and have that dream of financial security of having home ownership equity to stabilize their environment," Nadeau said.

"It's the only time this has been done in the province of Ontario."

Nadeau credited Ward 2 Coun. Luke Dufour for championing the concept, as well as Sault College and Melissa Ceglie and Dennis Rooney from Social Service for their contributions.