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They were not deterred, and instead found people who believed in their project. After years of negotiating with governâ€" ment and landowners, the Shamrock Coopâ€" After a year of thinking about alternaâ€" tives, Waechter helped organize a group of handicapped people to get a housing project underway. They called a communâ€" ity meeting, attended by social and church group leaders who told them their plans for a special facility were unrealistic and The pain of a friend who needlessly had to enter a nursing home six years ago led Bunny Waechter down a difficult road to create quality housing for handicapped people. "A very dear friend of mine had no place to go when she left home," recalled Waechter, sitting in her "Mobie" wheelâ€" chair at her home in the Beaver Creek cooperative. "Her parents were unable to look after her and she had Muscular Dystrophy. She had nowhere to go but a nursing home and she was a young 2l ALUPIO h V 194 shop early for best selection Shamrock Homes becomes a reality Other soâ€"called accessible housing is actually not convenient for most handicapped people, said Bunny Waechter, a founder of the project which is first of its kind in Canada. The move to educate Reichard was one of the many unique things the Shamrock board of directors did to ensure their project remained uniquely able to meet the needs of handicapped people. "I‘m really interested in this group and the philosoâ€" phy of the project," says Reichard. "I felt it was valuable for me to learn what it is like to be a handicapped person. So I volunteered to spend the afternoon in two wheelchairs." It was all part of the education of Rick Reichard, the architect for the Shamrock Cooperative Homes Inc. project that will soon be built on Kingscourt Drive in Waterloo. lan Kirkby Chronicle Staff First they put him in an electric wheelchair. Then they put him in a manual wheelchair. Making housing truly accessible ‘‘They don‘t have people with disabilities involved in | \l\/\' /V ‘j T; /‘,\,\ 1000 \T‘â€"‘“ IJBIQZIGJ;. Sujts EL* Wki /. \ ‘ _ ~A § ”///‘77{04 Spring //‘ / "g s A multi:u:jne‘qf‘sgt?_tjrs, Ars; 4A +. Reg. to $85 "They build accessible units, they furnâ€" ish them and make them accessible and automatically provide attendent care. When you know those things and you sit with our government people it kills you." The fight to get the project off the ground has not been easy. Provincial regulations in both the Housing and Community and Social Services Ministries were not inâ€" tended to allow innovative and creative projects such as Shamrock. Canada is behind much of the rest of the western world in providing opportunities to handicapped people, Waechter is quick to point out. "We‘re behind where Sweden and Switzerland and Holland have been for many years. And when the 90â€"unit apartment and townhouse complex is finished â€" expected in spring of 1990 â€" Waterloo will be home to Canada‘s first fullyâ€"accessible cooperaâ€" tive to integrate handicapped and ableâ€"bodâ€" ied people. erative Homes complex is about a month nway-fro!n a sodâ€"turning ceremony. $1988./ Central to the project is the idea of spreading the people living in the 19 handicapped units throughout the 90â€"unit apartment and townhouse complex. It will allow interaction and the building of friendships, and avoid ghetto. That lack of sensitivity carried over to government bureaucrats the coop members have had to deal with over the last six years as they pursued the project through twelve locations in Kitchenerâ€"Waterloo and through a maze of red tape. the planning," said Waechter who is herself handiâ€" capped.. A truly accessible building needs more than ramps, said Waechter. It needs low and easy to operate light fixures, doorknobs and taps. It need windows that are easily accessible to wheelchairs and special refrigeraâ€" tors and stoves. "An ordinary contractor doesn‘t think of these things," said Cathy Foote, a member of the board of directors of Shamrock and a housemate to a handiâ€" capped person. That aim requires placing two elevators in the (Continued on page 10) Bunny Waechter holds a eop_rmof the architectural plans for the Shamrock Cooperative Homes complex. Kingscourt Drive coop will be Canada‘s first fullyâ€"accessible cooperative integrating handicapped and ableâ€"bodied people. But the second elevator will be built. "Even after we were told we couldn‘t have it, our last plans we submitted to the government had it in." However, they achieved what they most needed Work on the $9.3 million complex will begin by mid May, says Waechter. Some work that should be publicly funded will instead go ahead as privately. raised funds become available. That stigma "comes out loud and clear when you‘re dealing with government bureaucrats." The coop has been "fexible in a lot of areas to make this project feasible," said Waechter. "We‘ve elimiâ€" nated a lot of things. We‘ve done a lot of dancing to government tunes." _ apartment building. The Ontario Ministry of Housing did not like the idea. ‘"They said, ‘No, put them all on one floor,"" recalls Waechter. "I wouldn‘t want to live on a floor of all halxdicapped people." Adds Foote: "They told us we had to give up things we shouldn‘t have to." Waechter laugh;. "So we have total accessibility.‘ 6 o /OI:J;?V A1, Ren, "I'njn ]I'I Ve n to ) Noy, *) / 6 on SPI'/,M_ 4 Ir? 6 \(‘h & COIOUI"s 144 85 lan Kirkby photo