Whether to rezone the Stonebridge Hotel will be decided by Grande Prairie City Council later this month. It is the centerpiece of a proposal for a new community social services facility.
The conditional offer currently in place, and if conditions are met, would see the City purchase the site for $12.5 million and rezone its use from a hotel into a Community Supportive Housing with 24 hour supports offered to tenants. The deal would not be finalized if council votes down the rezoning application, or any subsequent decision thereafter.
City of Grande Prairie Director of Enforcement and Social Services Chris Manuel says lessons learned from previous organized supportive housing initiatives are top of mind as they look to finalize the location for the new facility.
“Frankly, the Parkside [Inn] started in response to a crisis situation that was occurring in that area of the community, and at the time, the existing motel operation was… basically a concentration of a lot of criminal activity and adverse social behaviours,” he says.
“It was believed in lieu of that… placing some staff and supports on-site, creating an established client group in limiting the amount of transient activity would provide a degree of stability,” he adds.
Manuel says one of the benefits of the Stonebridge proposal is that the city is now aware of any potential issues that could arise. He adds they don’t have the same concerns about long-term tenants without a formal agreement.
“We know that if we take possession of the Strongbridge, we are taking possession of a completely vacant property in which we will be able to ensure the right tenants have been selected through the Housing Hub Table that consists of the appropriate agencies and workers that evaluate people for success,” he says.
Manuel says in the end, if the proposal goes through, it would potentially create a bigger umbrella of social programming in the city, and not just at the medical centre.
“We want to provide real wrap-around services, dedicated medical personnel that can certainly service the people on-site, but also provides support to other facilities we have in the city, whether that be Rotary House, the future Fletcher House.”
Council will debate the rezoning of the site on June 28th.