Ray Spiteri The Star Tue., Sept. 6, 2022
Local dignitaries gathered Tuesday to open a temporary housing facility on Victoria Avenue to help combat chronic homelessness.
The City of Niagara Falls declared the former Carnegie Library building as surplus to its needs and transferred the historic 1910 site to Niagara Regional Housing for a $3.7-million project announced in 2020.
The converted property will open for occupancy this week, next to the Niagara Military Museum building at Armoury Street.
The partners in the project, which includes support from upper levels of government, said it will help address a pressing, unmet need in Niagara for people living in a state of chronic homelessness and who have significant mental health, addiction and physical health challenges.
The facility provides units for temporary “bridge housing” for people awaiting permanent housing and permanent supportive housing.
“(Regional) council committed to supporting this facility by providing operating dollars to run the day-to-day operations,” said Niagara Region Chair Jim Bradley. “With that, Niagara Region will assume the role and is excited to do so as the service manager for this Victoria Avenue facility.”
Bradley said this term of council put a “heavy emphasis” on resources and funding towards programs to help “end chronic homelessness” and support people with mental-health and addiction challenges, adding local municipalities have also done so.
“With features like a medical centre, two 24-7 staff members on site, a community kitchen and more, the 15 adult residents who will be moving into this facility are going to receive outstanding care from a compassionate team,” he said.
“This type of housing provides trauma-informed, person-centred care by having access to all of these features. The goal of bridge housing is to provide intensive, shorter-term accommodation that helps fill the gap between staying in a shelter or staying outdoors. We want to help them get to a place where they are secure and safe to move on to the next stage of housing.”
Mayor Jim Diodati said it takes “partnerships” to make a project like this work, crediting the levels of government that came together on the initiative.
He said Andrew Carnegie, who was a “very successful” Scottish-American businessperson, built more than 2,500 libraries around the world, including one on Victoria Avenue, “because he thought immigrants and people should get educated so they can understand the culture and they can take themselves into a better financial place.”
“I think that’s what’s so special about this place. This is a bridge housing facility and it’s going to help people go from A to B in the same way that the library was designed to do that same thing,” he said. “This continues as a community facility to help people … in this case chronic homelessness, addiction, and they’ve got all sorts of challenges, including mental health, and sometimes it’s a combination thereof. Sometimes they don’t need a handout, they need a hand up and this can give them exactly what they need.”
Diodati credited city Couns. Victor Pietrangelo and Wayne Campbell and former chief administrative officer Ken Todd for leading the efforts at the local level.
“We had a decision to make (about) what we’re going to do with one of our assets, and Wayne Campbell lives a few doors down,” he said.
“Everyone knows about NIMBYism (not in my backyard) — not everybody would want a facility like this next door. Well, he embraced it, he didn’t just talk the talk, he walked the talk, and I have to give full credit to Coun. Campbell for his endorsement of such a great idea. It’s in the perfect location — it’s on a major arterial road, we’ve got transit, people can get to where they need to get to and get to the services that they need.”
Nicole Cortese, manager of homelessness operations for Niagara Region, said there are 15 units of bridge housing on two floors, some of which are accessible, as well as a staff office and teaching kitchen. Each floor has a laundry room.
One floor is dedicated to male or male-identified individuals, while the other is dedicated to female or female-identified individuals. Each unit has its own kitchenette, bed, sitting area and washroom.
“Our target population for this building really is folks who are chronically homeless who live on the street … that cannot access traditional shelter for one reason or another,” said Cortese. “That could be due to mental health or substance use, or restrictions within the system, so we really want to work with those individuals and support them to build some more life skills to be successful on their own in the community.”
She said there are five, double-occupancy units in the basement that the Region hopes to receive funding to open as recuperative-care rooms for homeless individuals who “are not sick enough to be in hospital but are too sick to be in the shelter system.”
“Maybe they need wound care, maybe a recent amputee, maybe a woman who has just given birth and has some postpartum.”
Cortese said the plan is for individuals to remain in the facility for six to eight months until they can transition into permanent housing in the community. There will be staff on site to help them get that, as well as other supports.
She said group programs will be run out of the teaching-kitchen room, which can also serve as a community room where Sunday dinners can be held and individuals can learn necessary life skills.
Cortese said individuals will be chosen from a Region list identifying those experiencing homelessness.
“We filter it by priority, so our priorities for this building would be people who are living on the streets for a lengthy period of time that are chronically homeless,” she said. “Priority will be given to our Indigenous partners in the community.”