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Michael Backs sits in his wheelchair and looks around his new home, his dog Reggie snuggled close against his chest. ZZ Top plays quietly from the portable radio on his small dining table. The apartment is tidy. The furniture clean, tasteful even.

“I’ve never been in the Lord Elgin before,” Backs says, “but it feels like the Lord Elgin in here.”

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Three weeks ago, Backs was one of the first tenants to move into a new four-storey, 42-unit apartment building on Clementine Boulevard in Heron Park run by Salus Corp., an Ottawa non-profit focused on providing supportive, affordable housing for vulnerable people.

Before Salus, Backs had spent seven months in a dorm at the Salvation Army on George Street. It was loud, tough and dangerous living. In October, Backs was there when a 30-year-old woman was fatally stabbed outside the shelter.

“That really, really scared me,” said Backs, who lost a leg a decade ago in an accident aboard the fishing boat he skippered in the Magdelan Islands. (“I woke up in hospital in Quebec City,” he says, matter of factly. “The next day, they took off my leg.)