Smiths Falls to get transitional housing
A transitional housing program is coming to Smiths Falls for the region's growing homeless population, in a project that is the first of its kind in Lanark County.
The new housing shelter will be located at the former Willowdale Retirement Home in the southern end of Smiths Falls, and will be able to house 11 people on a temporary basis and provide a range of critical services to help people get back on their feet.
“We're looking at a program that would be supported transitional housing for people experiencing homelessness, where we would house someone directly off our byname list into one of these units on a temporary basis, but with no actual timeline attached to it,” said Emily Hollington, the county 's director of social services.
The new program comes as the county, like many jurisdictions across the country, is seeing a sharp rise in the number of people experiencing homelessness in recent years, making the first-of-itskind program a necessary step on the road to sheltering the region's most vulnerable people.
“Our numbers are quite high,” Hollington said.
The number of people on its byname list — an official count of people experiencing homelessness — has grown exponentially in recent months. In January, there were 61 people on the list, with dozens added in the last month alone.
“In January we saw 44 new people experiencing homelessness,” Hollington told the county's community services committee last week.
“That was the highest number we had ever had. Typically, we see lower numbers in the winter. Not this year. We're up closer to 70 people going to be on that list this month.”
The county is partnering with the Saumure Group of Companies, a Smiths Falls-based construction firm known for purchasing derelict buildings and breathing new life into them, to make the project possible.
Saumure purchased the now-vacant retirement home after it closed in late 2022 and will pay for the cost of retrofitting the property to make it more appropriate for the housing program.
It will be administered by Lanark County Mental Health (LCMH), and will cost $296,000 in its first year.
That money will come from the Homelessness Prevention Program (HPP), a provincial pot of money issued last year for such initiatives.
Hollington said they still had about $390,000 left in funding from that program, and that it had been earmarked for a transitional program such as this.
The mental-health agency will hire a case manager who will work full time at the site, supporting the 11 residents with their needs.
The manager will help with things like activities of daily living, and connecting them to services and supports for issues like employment, mental health and substance use.
The residents will also have access a nurse practitioner, who would see them at the office on site, as well as services in psychiatry and harm reduction.
“It's a housing option we don't have right now in Lanark County, so we're hoping to pilot it, and hoping to see some success,” Hollington said.
The building consists of 63 single-room units, each with a bathroom and approximately 170 square feet in size.
As it stands now, the rooms are reached through a shared hallway and are all on the ground level. This type of housing arrangement isn't ideal for transitional housing, Hollington said, as many people who've experienced homelessness aren't used to sharing space.
The Saumure group has offered to remove all of the exterior windows and replace them with doors, so people can have privacy, and remove the shared interior space.
“They would cover the cost of that,” Hollington said, adding the building has enough space to accommodate an office and coin laundry on site.
Saumure will charge $1,000 a unit, which Hollington said is “very cheap” compared with the rental market in Smiths Falls. She said it is also much less expensive than what the county is currently paying to house some people in hotels, which amounts to around $3,000 to $4,000 a month.
The housing is meant to be transitional, and the county will work with clients to find more permanent housing. There is no timeline for how long they can stay at the shelter, however, and Hollington said some people may be there for weeks while others may be there for years.
The program will begin as a one-year pilot, and the residents will be required to participate in a program to help them become more independent. If they don't take part, they will be removed, Hollington said.
The one-time costs, covered by the HPP and facilitated by county staff, will amount to $3,000 per unit, for a total of $33,000. This will cover costs for a bed and mattress, appliances, a table and chair, desk and other furnishings for each unit.
The program's annual operating costs, also covered by the HPP, will come in at $296,000. This will cover staffing on site, client personal item replacement, and rent supplement.
The clients will have to pay a small participation fee, something that will bring in around $45,000 a year.
Peter Mckenna, a town councillor in Smiths Falls, said the program was sorely needed in the region.
“It's a step up from what we're doing now,” Mckenna said at the meeting.
“I think it's a really cost effective enhancement.”
Toby Randell, mayor of Carleton Place, agreed.
“This is 11 new units we don't currently have, so it should have a trickle-down effect,” Randell said. “Which is excellent.”
Hollington said they hoped to have the program up and running by this summer.