The society in charge of trying to bring a seniors’ residence to Bowen say they’re closer than ever to making the long-envisioned Snug Cove House a reality.
But the next few months will be the deciding timeframe in seeing if the housing project – in the planning stages for decades now – can finally break ground this year. The Snug Cove House Society (SCHS) has recently been granted a loan worth $11.6 million. Along with $3.6 million raised by SCHS over time, they’re just $2.4 million short of the $17.6 million total price tag for the building.
“We’ve never been so close. I mean we are so close. It’s the last mile,” says SCHS board chair Graham Ritchie.
The sizeable portion SCHS is able to contribute has been collected over many years thanks to strong community support for the project. Memorably in 2004 the society fundraised enough money to buy the $150,000 plot of land along Miller Road where they hope the residences will one day sit.
“It’s been a long time but the community support has been relentless… You have the stalwart givers like Knick Knack Nook and the Legion… and we have individual donors who have been keeping us going,” says Ritchie.
“The community wants it. We had 178 letters from the community in support… just fantastic. We’ve done our own surveys where two-thirds of the respondents said yes, we would consider going into a residence like this, and yes we can afford to pay what you’re asking,” he adds.
But, like many projects, costs have skyrocketed in the last few years. A 2021 estimate of the building’s cost stood at $12 million – an amount which would have been easily covered between the recent loan and SCHS’ own funds. But after a jump of over $5 million since, due to a combination of inflation and the all-too-familiar ballooning construction costs of the pandemic era, the group finds themselves short.
“We did not expect to have to fundraise, frankly. This is kind of a last minute deal,” explains Ritchie. “The last major ask was for the land. And this major ask is for the last mile.”
The society is hoping the community will be able to rally once again to see the residence over the finish line, while acknowledging they’re joining an already crowded fundraising landscape with several other island projects also seeking donor support. One area of emphasis for SCHS will be the realities of time in their pursuit.
One of the loan conditions for the $11.6 million sum (SCHS cannot publicly name the group yet due to the terms of the deal) expresses a desire for work to begin within four months of approval. This deadline is coming up early in April. Ritchie says he’s unsure what the prospects of an extension past that point are.
As the group has emphasized for years, SCHS says the residence could be life changing for Bowen’s elder population. “We call it a community within a community. This is not going to be a warehouse for seniors. This is going to be an integral part of the community, and reflect the fact that our seniors are part of the fabric of our community,” says Ritchie.
SCHS estimates several Islanders are forced to leave Bowen each year due to a need to shift accommodations. Ritchie says he knows several seniors in this situation who had to seek suitable care off-island.
“Leaving your friends, neighbours and memories behind is tough. So this is why we exist. SCHS exists to try and prevent those individual tragedies,” says Ritchie.
But that could all change if Snug Cove House enters the playing field. Eligibility would be for independent seniors who SCHS says mainly want to stay on the island, but would also like some help with tasks such as shopping, meal prep, or the opportunity for more socializing.
Ritchie stresses it’s not meant to be viewed as a care home, but the building is being constructed to the standards necessary for assisted living accreditation if that’s a path which garners interest in the future.
“It’s a fantastic community, and people don’t want to leave… The fervor of the community to want to stay kind of overwhelms some of the market weakness, which is that it’s a small market,” says Ritchie, noting one of the obstacles in securing large amount of funding for projects in small towns. But he says if the residence was completed at the end of next year, there would be no shortage of Boweners ready to move in.
More information on building details, history of the project, and ways to donate, can be found on the SCHS website at www.snugcovehouse.com
