The sod has officially been turned to mark the construction of a new housing project at 1132 98th Street in North Battleford.
The project is a supported rooming house that will house eight hard-to-house individuals at that location. Supervision and support will also be provided to those individuals at that location, with a view to break the cycle of homelessness.
On Thursday last week, representatives from the province’s Social Services ministry, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the city as well as the Battlefords Indian and Métis Friendship Centre were on hand for the sod-turning.
“It’s going to make a remarkable difference,” said Jackie Kennedy, executive director of Battlefords Indian and Métis Friendship Centre. “They’re going to take ownership on their lives. There’s going to be a program that they will follow and attend to. Hopefully, we can get to the root of issues and they can move along and start finding jobs, get the addiction treatment that they need, get the love that they need, the warmth that they need.”
The various levels of government played a role in funding the rooming house. Both the federal and provincial governments provided $580,000 under the federal/provincial 2014-2019 Investment in Affordable Housing Agreement.
Battlefords Indian and Métis Friendship Centre received a grant of $130,000 from Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs CDC towards the project, with an additional $10,000 approved by CMHC.
The city of North Battleford contributed $108,000 towards the land and the site servicing. The city also approved the discretionary use application for the 98th Street location, even though there was some opposition expressed by neighborhood residents. Nevertheless, council approved the location by a unanimous vote earlier this year.
The project has been in the works since well before then. Mayor Ryan Bater recalled that the BAHA Committee (Battlefords Affordable Housing and Homelessness Committee), identified the need for a facility for hard-to-house individuals.
City council was presented with the plan and the mayor described his reaction at the time as “it looks great on paper … how are we going to get these pieces together?”
The mayor still marvels at how the project managed to come together.
“All the stars have aligned, and now here we are to celebrate the groundbreaking of the facility,” said Bater. “Now the real work begins in delivering that programming.”
Social services minister Paul Merriman noted it was important for the province to be involved in the project.
“We’re all in on this to make sure these individuals will have an opportunity to succeed in life, and housing is the first start,” said Merriman.
There have been similar projects around Saskatchewan that the government has been involved with as well. Merriman noted the province has been working in concert with what the federal government is doing.
“The federal government is unrolling their national housing strategy, and we’re working on agreement between the federal government and Saskatchewan, as each province is, to be able to meet our needs, because our needs are a little different here in Saskatchewan than, say, in southern Ontario or the Territories.”
Mayor Bater noted this project will fill a need identified within the community.
“This is going to assist in our capacity to address housing and homelessness in the Battlefords for a very long time to come.”
While the sod-turning is meant to mark the start of construction, it was obvious that work at the site has already started.
A foundation has already been put in, and the expectation is the whole project will be finished by late spring of 2019.
