Transitional housing gets $5M boost

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This article was published 31/05/2023 (1070 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A transitional housing project in Brandon is halfway to covering construction costs after the federal government announced $5 million in funding through the Rapid Housing Initiative on Tuesday.

Last December, Youth for Christ Westman and the John Howard Society first announced their intention to build a three-storey, 24-unit centre aimed at helping people who have recently been released from jail or depend on shelter facilities find a place to live as they start a new chapter in their lives.

The need for such a facility was even more pronounced after the local YWCA was forced to close Meredith Place when critical repairs to the century-old transitional housing building became unfeasible.

“Everyone deserves a safe and affordable place to call home,” federal Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen said in a media release. “Through the Rapid Housing Initiative, we are quickly providing new affordable housing units for people who need them most, right across Canada, including right here in Brandon.”

The City of Brandon boosted that effort in March, when it agreed to sell land on the 300 block of 16th Street North to the John Howard Society for just $1 on the condition that it could secure full funding for the project. At the same time, the city announced it would also assist with a funding application to the Rapid Housing Initiative.

Speaking to the Sun, JHS executive director Ross Robinson called the announcement a “great contribution” to the project.

While the project was estimated by Robinson to have a $12-million price tag back in March, he told the Sun Tuesday that the project has been scaled back slightly and is now estimated to cost around $10 million.

That’s because at one point, consideration was given to adding a sobering centre for Brandon onto the project.

“It’s moving along, but its approval process is slower than this transitional housing one, so we had to eliminate it,” Robinson said. “We can include it going forward if it gets approved in time. But at this time, we just can’t wait for that approval, so we’re moving forward.”

In July 2021, the provincial government announced it would provide $2 million toward a sobering centre in the city, but no further details have been released since then.

To make up the rest of the funds needed, Robinson said the parties involved are in talks to get the provincial government on board.

Plans are also underway to host a charity roast in November of a local celebrity called “Crossing the Line” to raise money from private donors. The event’s website is supposed to go live next week.

A search has begun to find a partner organization to look at the project through an Indigenous lens and make sure the centre addresses the healing needs of Indigenous people.

“We need cultural input on every stage of the project going forward,” Robinson said.

If everything goes as planned, Youth for Christ Westman executive director Dwayne Dyck said Tuesday he hoped shovels could be in the ground this fall and the building completed before Christmas.

“The federal funding comes with some expectations, so there are some time pressures coming with that announcement,” Dyck said.

Speaking to the Sun by phone from Ottawa, Mayor Jeff Fawcett said providing land to projects like these is often the most significant role the city can play in assisting their development other than advocating for support from higher levels of government.

“We’re going to probably have to look for a bit of private funding as well to get this project done,” he said. “We found in Winnipeg that people are coming forward with a lot of private funding for projects like this, so we just need to make sure we can articulate that it does benefit our community here locally as well.”

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