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Future uncertain for Parkside Inn Supportive Housing residents

With just eight months left remaining in the Parkside Inn Supportive Housing pilot project, the City of Grande Prairie is now looking at several options to move those involved into the next step.

The options discussed at the Protective and Social Services Committee on Tuesday range from working on a transition plan for all 28 people currently living at the Parkside Inn into market housing to securing a permanent location to continue helping those in need.

The third option would see the City of Grande Prairie, with support from the Grande Spirit Foundation, work with Alberta Seniors and Housing to have a purpose-built supportive housing project ready for construction by 2021. The building, which would be a medical model, would also need the support of Alberta Health Services to proceed.

Housing and Homeless Initiative Supervisor Katherine Schmidt says they also need to be cognizant of the needs of those in the pilot who may not yet be at a point to return to renting on their own.

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“Those who need supportive housing for a longer-term, our goal by October is to make sure there is a transition plan for each and every one of them to meet whatever level the need is.”

In 2018, the City of Grande Prairie and the Canadian Mental Health Association converted the motel into supportive housing, initially housing people with mental health issues who are not able to stay in a regular shelter. Northreach Society took over the operations of the social service aspect from the CMHA in 2019.

Schmidt says, while they’ll wait for the pilot to wrap up before offering any deep analysis, she is pleased, at least anecdotally, by the results she has seen thus far.

“Pilots are all about learning, trial and error, and that’s really what we’ve found. We’ve had successes and challenges and the end result is we’ve had learnings that we can take into the future,” she says.

“I think what I see is it shows supportive housing projects work, it shows that individuals with a higher level of support for a period of time can work through a process to transition back into market housing.”

It’s expected an update on the proposed options will be provided to members of city council sometime in April.

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