27412 replies to this topic

[Beacon]

n area outside for people to safely use and consume their substances,” said Moran during a recent media tour, pointing to a second-floor balcony accessible only to residents and staff of the facility.

 

Many of Cool Aid’s supportive-housing facilities have some form of outdoor space for people to use drugs, with drug users increasingly favouring inhalation over injection, she said.

 

 

Good luck renting out any of those 30 apartments at full market price, who is going to take those with this in the same building?

[Victoria Watcher]

Can you smoke safe supply? Surely those in subsidized care have all been switched over, no? That’s why they have staff, to refer them to supports.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 03 December 2024 - 12:02 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Cool Aid spokesperson Tracey Robertson said the organization is still working with partners to decide how to incorporate harm-reduction practices into Crosstown’s supportive housing site, so details on such a program have yet to be confirmed.

 

Apartments will be affordable

 

Of the remaining 80 units, 30 will be rented at market rates: two-bedroom apartments will go for $1,250 up to $2,200, and three-bedroom apartments will list for $1,625 to $3K. The remainder of the units will be subsidized rentals geared to cost no more than 30% of a renter’s monthly income.

 

The site was developed adjacent to the former Tally-Ho hotel on Douglas, a property purchased by the province for $9.3 million that had been owned and operated by Cool Aid as a supportive housing facility since 2017. That property will be transferred back to the province as part of the project’s financing conditions. 

 

New tenants are hoping to move into Crosstown sometime in February. By March or April, pending discussions with BC Housing, some of the 22 residents of the Tally Ho will have the option of moving into the new supportive housing units. Most of those moving into Crosstown will be residents of the motel and not people “directly from the streets,” Robertson, CoolAid's community engagement manager said during the media tour earlier this week.

 

Who gets units

 

Angela Moran, associate director of housing and shelters for Cool Aid, said the organization will select rental tenants for these units who are trauma-informed—they realize the impact of trauma and they understand paths of recovery—or might already be familiar with supportive housing. 

 

When asked how Cool Aid is planning to balance the needs of rental-housing residents with those in supportive housing, Moran said Crosstown’s supportive-housing portion will have a no-guest policy and 24/7 staff-monitored-only access.

 

Robertson told Capital Daily she’s most excited about how the project integrates housing, health, and other support services into a campus of care in one location. 

 

“It’s life-changing,” she said.

 

And ... 36 childcare spaces

 

Roughly 25K square feet of the building is dedicated commercial space, 6K square feet of which is a community health centre. Cool Aid needs an additional $1.5 million to fully equip the centre and fund a range of health services. The development will also provide 36 affordable childcare spaces—to be operated by Beacon Community Services—with $1.4 million in support from Childcare BC’s New Spaces Fund.   

 

Cool Aid spokesperson Tracey Robertson said the organization is still working with partners to decide how to incorporate harm-reduction practices into Crosstown’s supportive housing site, so details on such a program have yet to be confirmed.

 

Put that near the daycare for sure.   https://www.capitald...ing-development

 

 

 

 

Supportive housing apartments will be rented at a monthly shelter rate of $500. Entry into the complex’s separate 54-unit supportive housing facility will be managed at an office adjacent to the building’s main entrance. 

 

 

 

 

 

Poor Doors of Perception: discriminatory design, collapsing balconies, and virtual realities on Archinect Sessions #36

https://archinect.co...ect-sessions-36

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 03 December 2024 - 11:54 PM.

[Mike K.]

A new tent city is forming at the parking lot of the supportive housing project on Douglas at Topaz.

[Victoria Watcher]

A community fridge in Rock Bay closed last week, but the organizers are searching for a new location.

The announcement came via an Instagram post stating the fridge would be closed effective Nov. 29. “We are sad to say the Community Fridge in Rock Bay is closing as of today. Many community members have come together over the last several years to make this resource available and we are deeply appreciative to you all.”

Since it opened in May 2021, the fridge was stocked with fresh produce, dry and bulk goods, hygiene items, pet food and other snacks. The organizers said in their community fridge brochure that it was “visited by countless people every week.”


https://www.vicnews....s-doors-7685602




Community Fridge organizers declined to comment on the closure of the fridge at this time, but stated community members can find further updates on their Instagram.





Oh you don’t say eh?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 04 December 2024 - 10:29 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

I’m sure it’s because donations far exceeded withdrawals and it was kept meticulously clean.

[Beacon]

A new tent city is forming at the parking lot of the supportive housing project on Douglas at Topaz.

 

This would be the parking lot at the old Comfort Inn, Red Roadhouse....correct?

[Victoria Watcher]

I think it’s more south. Super 8. It’s hard to keep track, most budget hotels are now homeless places it’s the best thing for CoV. To hell with tourism.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 04 December 2024 - 11:24 AM.

[Barrister]

Forget tourism, to hell with those of us who live here. But we keep electing the same types of politicians so can we really complain.

[Sparky]

I don’t think that property is zoned campground.

[Bambam]

This is quite the cottage "industry" we've built up in this area.

 

Cool Aid is (or was very until very recently) advertising for a new senior management-type for something like $102+k. Not bad coin, even by the standards of the local private sector; combined with all those 'middle management' salaries ranging from the mid-70's to $90k plus, I wouldn't think nor does it surprise me that there would be little if any incentive by those concerned to lobby government and end many of these operations, to revert back to involuntary care facilities funded by senior levels of government, i.e. back in the days of Glendale Lodge etc.

[Victoria Watcher]

[Victoria Watcher]

As Victoria approves $2.18M for affordable housing, concerns raised about clustering projects

 

 

Two new projects in the North Park neighbourhood means there will soon be four supportive or transitional housing projects within about 200 metres of each other, said Coun. Jeremy Caradonna

 

 

 

Victoria city council has approved three grants worth a combined $2.18 million from its housing reserve fund to support the creation of 247 affordable and supportive housing units.

 

While the funding was approved unanimously, it sparked discussion about the effects of concentrating supportive housing in a small area of the city.

 

Council gave the green light to a $1.16 million grant for the Capital Region Housing Corporation for a 158-unit affordable rental building at 926-930 Pandora Ave., a $757,500 grant for the M’akola Housing Society to help build a 55-unit affordable rental project at 210-220 Langford St. and 824 Alston St. in Vic West, and $262,500 for the Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness Society to help build a 34-unit Indigenous supportive-housing project at 938 Mason St.

 

Coun. Jeremy Caradonna said the groups are all “rock stars of supportive and affordable housing,” but he’s concerned about the location of the projects.

 

Caradonna said the addition of two new projects in the North Park neighbourhood — the Capital Region Housing Corporation and Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness Society’s projects are a block apart — means there will soon be four supportive or transitional housing projects within about 200 metres of each other.

 

“That defies logic and it defies good city building practices,” he said. “It breaks all the rules of good urbanism because we are putting all of the people with high needs and poverty needs in the same small cluster.”

 

 

https://www.timescol...rojects-9921310

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 07 December 2024 - 04:54 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Tenants from Village on the Green rally for housing security

Tenants with disabilities are worried they’ll end up on the street


https://www.capitald...ousing-security


About half way through that article it swings to talk about a set of Vancouver properties that Chard has or had bid on. Irrelevant but I guess the woke author somehow is looking for an angle.

Also Ken Hynes should get a job, he clearly has some skills.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 07 December 2024 - 07:07 AM.

[Mike K.]

a $757,500 grant for the M’akola Housing Society to help build a 55-unit affordable rental project at 210-220 Langford St. and 824 Alston St. in Vic West

That’s immediately adjacent to the Catherine Street supportive housing project: https://victoria.cit...therine-street/

[Mike K.]

Tenants from Village on the Green rally for housing security

Tenants with disabilities are worried they’ll end up on the street


https://www.capitald...ousing-security


About half way through that article it swings to talk about a set of Vancouver properties that Chard has or had bid on. Irrelevant but I guess the woke author somehow is looking for an angle.

Also Ken Hynes should get a job, he clearly has some skills.

And this is a CRD project. It has nothing to do with Chard.

Here’s the profile: https://victoria.cit...e-on-the-green/

[Victoria Watcher]

When Lawrence Ross moved into his bachelor unit in a supportive housing facility for seniors two years ago, it was “a big, dramatic change” from his last few months living in a shelter.

Ross, now 64, had been on pins and needles while living at the shelter, where many people were drinking and using drugs and he felt he needed to keep to himself.

“It’s almost like going to jail. If you don’t mind your business, you’re going to be confronted,” he said.

When he first saw his new home in Cool Aid’s Olympic Vista building near Uptown, Ross thought to himself: “How fortunate I am that Cool Aid has a place for senior adults.”


___\_

The 36 residents of Olympic Vista, who are 55 years old and up, receive a daily meal, medical care for mental health and ­substance use, harm reduction support and life-skills development.


https://www.timescol...es-back-9921408

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 December 2024 - 11:39 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Off the street, supportive housing resident gives back

 

https://www.timescol...es-back-9921408

 

 

It's quite unlcear how this this guy "gives back".

 

 

 

Ross has the same holiday plan this year as usual. He’ll cook a full Christmas spread — turkey, vegetables, mashed ­potatoes, stuffing and gravy — and leave his door open to any neighbours who want to join him.

 

He doesn’t intend to send out formal invites, but he’s confident people will be able to follow their noses. “They’ll smell it,” he said.

 

If there are any leftovers, he’ll package up turkey sandwiches and hand them out to people living on the street so they don’t go hungry on Christmas Day.

 

 

 

Imagine a housing complex where neighbours come knocking on your door for food just because they smell your cooking.

 

 

 

The 24/7 staff go above and beyond for residents, Ross said, and he can have all of his medical needs taken care of at Cool Aid’s downtown clinic.

 

“I’m so forever thankful for Cool Aid Society, who gave me a chance to have some sort of a sensible life with my own apartment,” he said.

 

The 36 residents of Olympic Vista, who are 55 years old and up, receive a daily meal, medical care for mental health and ­substance use, harm reduction support and life-skills development.

 

 

 

24/7 staff to babysit 36 55+ people.  

 

 

55 years old and up, receive a daily meal, medical care for mental health and ­substance use, harm reduction support and life-skills development.

 

 

Maybe by 55 you should not be doing drugs and you probably should already have the "life skills".

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 09 December 2024 - 04:46 AM.

[Lupurus2901]

I can't imagine what you find objectionable about this.

[Barrister]

Why do these articles never mention the cost?