Courtney McGrailStaff Reporter
A former seminary in Diocese of Waterford & Lismore has been transformed into a new housing project by a Catholic agency.
The extensive work on St John’s College was carried out by the Franciscan-run housing agency Respond with the aim of alleviating the problem of homelessness in Waterford city.
The new development, which will take 57 people off the Waterford local authority’s social housing list, includes 21 new apartments in the college itself, with a 10-bed group home and 36 new one-bed apartments in an adjoining building.
Respond’s National Co-ordinator of Services for Older People, Philip O’Reilly, told The Irish Catholic that while the building was in an “awful state” when the agency took it over, he is “delighted with how it has turned out”.
“It’s a real step in the right direction with regard to the issue of homelessness in the city and aside from that it has given life to a building that was falling down just a few years ago,” he said.
The total project costs of the redevelopment of St John’s College was €12 million.
Approximately €8 million of this was made available in State mortgages to Respond from Waterford City Council through the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.
The remaining €4 million was provided by Respond of which some €2.25 million came in a private borrowing initiative from AIB Bank.