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One of the main groups in Ottawa devoted to helping people experiencing homelessness says it will transform one of its emergency shelters into longer-term supportive housing.<\/p>\n
Shepherds of Good Hope said Thursday the move toward “a health and supportive housing facility” would better serve its clients. <\/p>\n
The not-for-profit currently runs the largest emergency shelter in Ottawa, with up to 270 people sleeping at its King Edward Avenue facility on its busiest nights, the organization said in a news release. <\/p>\n
This shelter system was designed to provide short-term help but many people staying there face barriers to finding stable housing and may remain there for years, the organization said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to change how we support the most marginalized members of our community,\u201d CEO Stephen Bartolo said in the release. \u201cShepherds is committed to shifting our approach away from managing homelessness to one of prevention and permanent solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The organization’s vision is to convert the second and third floor of its facility into bachelor units, while revamping the first floor to provide on-site medical and social services.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said in the release that the project is “a fundamental shift” in how the city responds to homelessness. <\/p>\n
\u201cExpanding supportive housing continues to be one of our top priorities as we work toward ending homelessness,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
‘A new chapter for Lowertown’ <\/p>\n
Shepherds of Good Hope believes the conversion will benefit Lowertown and the ByWard Market, a view shared by Rideau-Vanier Coun. St\u00e9phanie Plante, whose ward encompasses the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The conversion would mark \u201ca new chapter for Lowertown, one focused on housing, stability and long-term solutions,\u201d Plante said in the release. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe future of homelessness response must include more housing and fewer barriers to getting people home,” she added. <\/p>\n
While the conversion could result in a reduction of emergency shelter beds, people were already being turned away from existing facilities, according to Kaite Burkholder Harris, the executive director of Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa, of which Shepherds of Good Hope is a member.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we keep expanding shelter beds \u2026 we’re literally investing in maintaining homelessness,\u201d she told CBC.<\/p>\n
Too many people had become stuck living in emergency shelters and were unable to get out, and “the longer they stay, the more likely they’re exposed to trauma and all kinds of challenges,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shepherds of Good Hope has not yet completed planning for the change, saying it would engage with architects, engineers, partner agencies and “people with lived experience\u201d in the coming year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-745970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}