Lewiston Mayor Lionel Guay made a politically difficult decision last week, one for which the residents of the city should be glad.

Guay was called upon Tuesday to cast the tie-breaking vote to redevelop St. Dominic Regional High School’s Drouin Building into senior housing. Council members were knotted, 3-3, over whether to spend $1.11 million in grant money.

Guay pushed the project forward.

Considered in a vacuum, questions over the St. Dom’s project are understandable. The $11 million project will create 37 one-bedroom rental units for senior citizens and a mix of public and private spaces. Of the total project cost, about $7.3 million will be used to build the apartments. That comes out to just under $200,000 per unit, a hefty price tag to be sure.

An argument can be made that the same amount of money could be spent to build more units, less expensively. True. But that thinking doesn’t consider other implications.

St. Dom’s is centrally located. It would consolidate senior housing close to already available services, create a mixed-use development that would provide support to residents and benefit other city residents, and advance the city’s plans to revitalize the downtown. It also preserves a historically significant building.

Scuttling the St. Dom’s project would have pushed senior housing to the fringes of the city, where it is more expensive to provide services and care. The building would likely have been lost, and the move would have been at odds with the city’s overall redevelopment initiative.

There are other worthwhile uses for community development grants, as Council Norm Rousseau suggested in voting against the project. But we believe this use ranks high.

The need for senior housing is apparent, and likely to increase. Already, there’s a backlog of some 63 people waiting for affordable senior housing. The city currently has 252 units. Maine’s population is aging and a big surge is expected as baby boomers near retirement age.

Restoring St. Dom’s fits into the city’s comprehensive plans, while providing needed facilities. Under current economic constraints and pressure to restrain spending, it was a tough vote to allocate more than a $1 million. But it was the right vote.