A day after members of Grande Prairie City Council voted to purchase the Stonebridge Hotel to turn it into a community care campus, the Director of Protective and Social Services believes the city can now move forward on what he believes is a massive piece of the puzzle when it comes to solving chronic homelessness in the city.
Chris Manuel says between the now approved development of the supportive housing complex at the hotel and other projects underway in the city, a dent into chronic homelessness could actually be made. That includes the 44-units of retrofitted housing planned for Helma Fletcher Building that sits on the edge of Grande Prairie City Hall.
“The two of those coming online will address that gap and not in a topical way, but a really substantial one. We have exerted a great deal of effort on proposing alternatives in the past, and now we can focus our efforts on achieving success on those operations, and building it to be what we’ve sold it to be.”
Manuel admits that while they’re not going to completely prevent homelessness from occurring in the city, the intent of the push for more housing and services allows them to focus on prevention and early intervention.
“We get somebody through that system and out the other end in a far more expedient manner, and in a way that has much less community impact, financial impact, and impact on the individual themselves.”
Councillor Dylan Bressey, one of five councillors who voted in favour of the purchase, says the $15.5 million price tag is high, but suggests the bulk of funding for operating the supportive housing hub will come from the people in it paying rent. It will also see a reallocation of funding that is already being spent on chronic homelessness. He adds that getting the project to the starting line is a major step forward in something that the community has been trying to address for a long time.
“This has been over a decade of working the City of Grande Prairie… in over a decade of working on addressing homelessness we haven’t had the vital thing you need to help solve it, and that is supportive housing. I think the council is very pleased to have an actual plan in place that is actually going to address homelessness, not just talk about addressing homelessness.”
The proposal includes repurposing the hotel on 100 Street into a facility that would house social service organizations, health care services, and community supportive housing units. It would not be a shelter but would provide food services, recreation, and multi-cultural spaces.