Making room

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With a growing senior population and the Centre of Excellence for Integrated Seniors Services not slated to open until spring 2012, there is a high demand for supportive housing for seniors in Thunder Bay.

"There are seniors in the community that are struggling that might need some help with medication, with bathing, with dressing, meal preparation," said St. Joseph’s Care Group president and CEO Tracy Buckler. "Seniors are able to stay in their own independent home setting if they have those supports."

To meet the need on an interim basis, St. Joe’s partnered with Habib Enterprises to create 75 transitional supportive housing units at McKellar Place retirement community – in the renovated former McKellar Hospital – set to open this October. The Northwest Community Care Access Centre is already accepting applications for people that meet the eligibility requirements.

Any seniors who move into the supportive housing units in McKellar Place will have a guaranteed spot in CEISS when it’s complete or they can choose to stay where they are.
The supportive housing program will receive $900,000 annually from the North West Local Health Integrated Network, which covers 70 per cent of the cost of support services. The rest comes from the cost to the tenants.

And while there will be 75 supportive housing apartments in McKellar Place, once CEISS is complete the program will have 132 units. Buckler said there is a growing demand for the housing.

"I think particularly in Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario we have a large number of seniors," she said. "We also know there’s a lot of youth that are leaving. So what you might have had before in previous years is there would be younger people around to help our seniors … now there are more seniors that are going to require care."

Almost half of the 75 units have already been taken; anyone looking for more information should contact the North West Community Care Access Centre at 766-2814.