Mccauley community loses legal bid

Facility for those with addictions will be completed

The long legal battle against an apartment building intended to house people with chronic addictions ended Tuesday when the Alberta Court of Appeal refused to hear the community’s latest challenge.

“It’s great news,” said Niginan Housing Ventures president Faye Dewar, whose non-profit society started construction of Ambrose Place in 2010.

“I understand some of their arguments behind what they’re doing. I have no resentment against them. Once the building is completed, we’re going to open the doors so they can see (it).”

The McCauley Community League has argued the 42-unit building shouldn’t be allowed to go up at 9629 106th Ave. because the area already contains too much social housing.

It also contends the four-storey structure, which will use a “harm reduction” model to treat substance abuse that includes letting residents drink in their rooms, doesn’t comply with the neighbourhood plan.

Work on the facility was suspended last March following a court ruling that the community league was wrongly denied a chance to fight the development permit.

But the city issued a new permit. Justice Jean Cote turned down the league’s latest request for a Court of Appeal hearing into the permit’s validity because he concluded their case didn’t have a reasonable chance of success.

Construction will resume as soon as possible.

Ambrose Place, aimed at homeless aboriginal adults with addictions, mental illness or physical handicaps, should open next spring, Dewar said.

She called this prospect “a dream come true” after working on the idea since 2002.

“Most of the people who we’re housing have been homeless and have been living in this community for a long time,” she said, adding there isn’t another facility like this for aboriginal people in McCauley.

“Putting them in a house, giving them food and support, will lessen the effect (on) the community … I think it makes the community a bit safer.”

But Meredith Porter, secretary of the McCauley Community League, isn’t expecting any improvements once Ambrose Place starts operating.

Social housing should be spread throughout the city rather than being located primarily in a few inner-city neighbourhoods, she said.

“This is needed in Edmonton. People need these services, but not in McCauley.”

City council will consider Wednesday a five-year ban on funding nonmarket housing in Queen Mary Park, Alberta Avenue and Eastwood. A 10-year moratorium will be considered for McCauley and Central McDougall.

While Porter describes this as a “hard line” move, she hopes the motion is approved.

“Everyone recognizes that the spatial concentration of poverty is a bad idea … We’re taking the position that it’s incredibly bad.”