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Newmarket woman on verge of eviction finds her home sweet home

'I feel like I'm part of the community,' the once precariously housed retired librarian says of apartment complex she now calls home

“I’m so happy,” Newmarket resident Mary Welsh said as she gave a tour of her new downtown apartment that came through in the eleventh hour and “was meant to be”.

NewmarketToday readers may remember Welsh, a precariously housed senior being evicted from an illegal, ramshackle rental on Matthew Boyd Crescent in the Yonge and Davis area last spring. 

“I had no idea how much that place was bringing me down,” she said of the detrimental effect the housing had on her mental health and well-being.

The retired librarian shared the challenges she has faced over the past several years in securing an affordable place to live, one in which she would be proud to call home. An exhaustive late spring search for an affordable apartment in Newmarket had turned up sub-par illegal units at best and, at worst, “death traps”, she said.

But since June, Welsh has settled in at beautifully landscaped 12-unit complex geared to seniors in Newmarket’s downtown Queen and Prospect streets area. The rent is “a bit more” than she can comfortably afford at just more than $1,100. But, if she’s careful with budgeting, Welsh said she’ll be OK.

Welsh, who works as a cashier at Walmart, competed with two other applicants for the one-bedroom apartment, which features a living/dining area with a big window that overlooks the courtyard on Queen Street, a galley kitchen, four-piece bathroom, on-site storage locker and laundry room, and plenty of friendly neighbours who take the time to stop and say hello.

“I feel like I’m part of the community,” Welsh said, adding that neighbours take care of and water the many plants and flowers that grace the planter boxes outside the units. 

These days, Welsh can be found walking the Tom Taylor Trail to the Saturday Farmers Market at Riverwalk Commons to shop for food, a jaunt that gives her much pleasure as she often sights wildlife along the way, including a great blue heron last weekend.

She also takes walks around the downtown, and loves to sit outside her apartment under the stately red maple tree that provides much needed shade at the centre of the courtyard.

“I have my own legitimate mailbox, garbage and recycling area, air conditioning, heat that I can control, and I can play my music now because there’s no one above me,” she said of the things that can be taken for granted and that she didn’t have at her former apartment. 

The only downside, Welsh said, is that she now has to take public transit to work insteading of walking, which has increased her monthly costs and travel time. 

As she reclines on a new-to-her loveseat, with nine-year-old cat Kristi looking on from the windowsill, Welsh said she feels safe and secure, and happy.

“I could just sit here all day and look out the window,” she said.


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Kim Champion

About the Author: Kim Champion

Kim Champion is a veteran journalist and editor who covers Newmarket and issues that impact York Region.
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