Thursday marked the launch of Dufferin Villa's fundraising phase.

The Portage Assisted Living Association has teamed up with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to proceed with the project.

The 53 unit assisted living site is obligated to raise $500,000 to show that the community is supportive of the Project.

Al Braun is the committee chair. He says this has been a long time in the process.

"We're very excited about where we are, and we've had excellent support within the community. We continue to anticipate that support within the community into the future," says Braun. "We've got a lot of people interested in this project coming out, as we're starting off our fundraising campaign."

Stride Credit Union kicked off the fundraising by presenting a $25,000 cheque toward the cause.

Ruth Brownridge is the secretary and part of the fundraising Committee. She gives us an update on how things are going.

"The community is here to support us," says Brownridge. "This is our fundraising launch day, and you can see that quite a few people have come out. We're hoping they've brought their chequebooks. We're just going to keep putting ourselves out there, and telling people about our project, and ask them to support us."

Braun notes that they had hoped to break the ground on the assisted living facility this fall, but due to the election it's been pushed back until early in the new year.