In June, Corrine Melanson will be joining 41 other low-income women at a new housing unit at 314 Booth St. that the Cornerstone Foundation for Women unveiled yesterday afternoon.

“It’s clean, it’s affordable and I won’t have to pay too much,” said Melanson. She added that the facility she currently lives in on Somerset Street is neither clean nor safe.

The $11.8-million, four-storey building was in the works for six years and Carol Burrows, chair of the Cornerstone Capital Campaign, shared Melanson’s excitement.

“There’s a huge deficit in affordable housing in Ottawa for all populations, especially for seniors. The senior women who are going to live here really have no other alternatives,” said Burrows.

Local community groups and all three levels of government paid for the cost of the building, which includes a computer lab, kitchen and a quiet room.