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By Jim Coggins
WHEN the B.C. government decided to create more than 2,287 supportive housing units, it entrusted the running of its first project to a Christian organization. When federal, provincial and municipal politicians gathered May 18 for the groundbreaking for Kindred Place, the event was blessed in prayer by a Christian minister.
On April 3, the province announced that, under its Provincial Homelessness Initiative, it was purchasing 11 single-room occupancy hotels, was buying four other buildings which it will convert to supportive housing, and would fund the construction of three new buildings.
The first of the new buildings is Kindred Place, an 87-unit, $17.7 million building on Richards Street in Vancouver.
The City of Vancouver owns the land, the provincial government is contributing $6.5 million, and the federal government is contributing $1.28 million through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's Affordable Housing Initiative. Vancouver Coastal Health Authority is contributing $2.1 million because 30 of the 87 units are reserved for those recovering from addictions and several other units will be reserved for people with disabilities. Coastal health will also supply a full-time health worker to support the people in the 30 recovery units.
Kindred Place is the ninth project of More Than A Roof/Mennonite Housing Society, which has been managing social housing complexes for over 20 years. It already operates Candela Place, a 62-unit supportive housing complex very similar to Kindred Place just a couple of blocks away. It was the success of that complex that paved the way for the new one.
The politicians had varying understandings of Mennonites. The federal representative, MP Ed Fast of Abbotsford, himself belongs to a Mennonite Brethren church.
The provincial representative, Claude Richmond, Minister of Employment and Income Assistance, said he hadn't known much about Mennonites until Mennonite Disaster Service came to the Kamloops area to help in the aftermath of the disastrous forest fires in the interior of B.C. in 2003. "The Mennonites came, rebuilt and left." He was clearly impressed.
A Family
At the sod-turning, Wayne Doersam, a resident of Candela Place, described what living there has meant to him. Having spent many years as a heroin user and over 20 years in prison, he finally got his life together and got a job. But he was still extremely lonely, alienated from his family and living in a low-cost residential hotel where no one talked to anyone else. At Candela Place, he said, he can go out into the hall and talk to people; he also said he found it refreshing that he gets honest answers when he asks them if things are going well.
"I thank God for Mennonite Housing Society," Doersam said. "It has given me a bigger family than I ever thought possible."
It costs about $450,000 a year to run Candela Place, but most of that money is covered by the housing component of the residents' social service payments. Since people with a place to live have fewer health and other problems than people who are homeless, a supportive housing complex can actually save the government millions of dollars a year.
The units in Candela Place are about 325 square feet and include a kitchen and bathroom. The building is bright, clean and attractive, a sharp contrast to many of run-down single-room occupancy hotels in the city. There is a lounge with a dual-screen TV, a small resident-run store, a weight room and a library. There are communal food events, haircut days, training sessions and other activities.
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| Officiating at the sod-turning for Kindred Place were (left to right): Linda Thomas, Housing Director, Vancouver Coastal Health; Peter Dueck, Vice Chair, More Than a Roof Mennonite Housing Society; Mayor Sam Sullivan, City of Vancouver; The Honourable Claude Richmond, Minister of Employment and Income Assistance; Ed Fast, Member of Parliament - Abbotsford. |
Christian Community
At the sod-turning, executive director Lorne Epp said More Than A Roof is very open about being a Christian faith organization. "Our beliefs have to make a practical difference."
Epp said later that even though the government's other buildings will be supportive housing units in that they will have support workers, "they will have a hard time replicating what we do because we come at it from a changed heart."
Even though the various governments provide the vital funding, Epp said it is the extra things that often makes the difference. Besides the full-time mental health worker, Candela Place has three part-time workers in administration, maintenance and tenant relations. Epp said the key is finding staff "with a vibrant outreaching faith and a heart for people."
"People underestimate the sweat that goes into building community," said Epp. It took two years before residents became trusting enough of staff, and each other, for Candela Place to start functioning as a community. "We try to model volunteerism. . . . The essence of community is to take up the cross, give up something for the benefit of others, give up your rights and freedoms for the sake of the community."
More Than A Roof deliberately works at giving residents responsibility for maintaining order in the residence, said Epp. When the residents wanted a store that would offer 7-Eleven goods at Costco prices, the agency told the residents to develop a business plan and run it themselves. The store, by the front door in a space originally intended for a security kiosk, also functions as "eyes and ears" for safeguarding community.
Once residents catch the volunteering spirit and realize they all have something to contribute, said Epp, they develop a sense of purpose.
Divine Help
The prayer at the sod-turning was led by Tim Dickau, pastor of Grandview Calvary Baptist Church, which has donated its parking lot to More Than A Roof for a future 38-unit supportive housing complex. Dickau thanked God that "people who have not had a home will now have a home" and that "people fashioned in the image of God will have their dignity and value restored."
Dickau prayed that Kindred Place "will be a place of safety and care" and that it "will be a sign to our society that You have given us responsibility to care for our neighbour."
May 24/2007
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