New supportive housing project opens
Good Shepherd turns former student residence on Arkledun into apartments for up to 73 people
Michelle started to cry when she learned she had a new, safe place to live — and help, when or if she needs it — in a new supportive housing complex on Arkledun Avenue.
The newcomer to Hamilton said she was dealing with the trauma of domestic violence and had nowhere to turn when she got the call to move into Good Shepherd’s newly opened Dorothy Day Place.
“My life certainly slid sideways unexpectedly,” said Michelle, who identifies as a Mi’kmaq member of the Bear Clan but did not want to be identified using her full, real name because of her recent traumatic history. “When I was told I was accepted, the tears just popped out.
“(Until then) I did not know what was to become of me.”
Michelle was among the first in May to move into the 73-unit, fivestorey converted student residence that will now provide both homes and support for unhoused or at-risk women, transgender, non-binary and two-spirit residents.
Ontario’s housing minister, Steve Clark, announced a $4.8-million contribution Friday to the $21-million conversion project that also received past contributions from the federal government and city.
Providing new supportive housing like the units at Arkledun is key to helping people permanently transition out of the “survival mode” of living on the street or in other precarious situations, said Good Shepherd COO Katherine Kalinowski.
There are plenty of people living on the streets or on the edge of homelessness, with city estimates this spring of about 1,600 people. There are an estimated 100 tent sites around the city, a number that fluctuates according to the season.
The city’s overtaxed shelter system is “an absolute bottleneck,” particularly for women, said Kalinowski on Friday. She said Good Shepherd staff at the routinely full Mary’s Place emergency shelter were forced to turn away women on more than 1,500 occasions in the last year.
She argued supportive housing is key to the ultimate goal of ending, rather than “managing” homelessness. Supportive housing means a safe, affordable place to live — but also one offering daily or even 24-7 supports for health, counselling, addiction and harm reduction, for example.
Those supports are all on offer at the new Dorothy Day Place. But so are easier-to-miss details meant to make residents more comfortable, like lots of natural light, a communal dining option, soundproofing and individual coffee makers in many units. “We heard from (incoming) residents that coffee was really important,” said Kalinowski.
Michelle said Thursday she appreciates the calm and beautiful surroundings of her new home, which she has personalized with drums and plants that are meaningful for her. “I like that I’m in a women’s community,” she added.
“I have goals and things I’m going to do … I’m definitely on a path of healing right now.”
Clark’s funding announcement also provided close to $2 million to the Indwell-Sacajawea redevelopment of a former Ottawa Street North bar into supportive units for Indigenous parents.
The city is still awaiting word from the province on requested funding for an expanded “intensive support” program to tackle an estimated need for 200 supportive units for homeless residents with the most complex needs, including severe addiction or mental-health challenges.