THUNDER BAY - The Salvation Army's new Journey to Life Centre on North Cumberland Street received a major boost Monday from the federal government.
Patty Hajdu, the minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, announced a $3 million contribution to the project through the National Housing Co-Investment Fund.
“Their application was very thorough, they had a great model which is focusing on the most vulnerable with the transitional housing portion of the project,” Hajdu said. “We worked very closely with the Salvation Army to make sure this application was successful.”
Groundwork for the new facility, which will replace the current Thunder Bay headquarters adjacent to the construction site, began last fall.
The $15.5 million project has received $7.5 million from the Salvation Army, $1.3 million from the province, and $500,000 from the city.
Salvation Army executive director of community and residential services, Lori Mitchell, said the announcement that their application through the National Housing Co-Investment Fund fills in the funding gap that remained in the project.
“The application process was fairly onerous,” she said. “It was quite extensive, the information they needed. So knowing that all of our hard work paid off, it took a lot of effort to get this application through so we are very excited.”
“Having this application be successful is huge,” Mitchell continued. “We had a funding gap and this basically closes this gap and allows us to move forward.”
A capital campaign to raise the remaining $1.2 million remains open and Mitchell said they are approximately 50 per cent of the way to reaching that goal.
The Journey to Life Centre will include 46 shelter/supportive beds and 20 transitional units. Hajdu said the Salvation Army’s vision of having supporting units as well as independent living fit in really well with the national housing strategy.
“People are looking for dignity in their life,” she said. “There is an opportunity with housing like this for people to develop life skills and confidence and to do so in an environment that indicates to them that they also have worth.”
The facility will provide a place for men with addictions and mental health issues, an emergency shelter, and offer beds for parole clients who are finishing their sentences and reestablishing themselves in the community.
“This is going to help us do our programming so much better,” Mitchell said. “We are already doing programming with clients, but the facility is purpose built, so we’ve really put a lot of thought into what we want to do in the building. The building has been designed with those things in mind.”
Mitchell added that the facility and program, particularly the transititional housing, is all about helping people get back on their feet and out of homelessness for good.
“That is going to be the biggest change to what we are doing,” she said. “Hopefully allowing people to become contributing members of society and break the cycle of homelessness and poverty for them.”
The Journey to Life Centre is expected to open next September.
