Plan to convert hotel to transition housing welcomed but could be cheaper: advocate
Questions about services, costs remain
Newfoundland and Labrador's opposition parties say they want more details about the provincial government's plans to convert a hotel into transition housing, while a housing advocate says better options could have been done a lot more cheaply.
The Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corp. announced Monday that it will lease the Comfort Hotel on Airport Road for three years, at $6.9 million per year. The hotel will close on Feb. 15, and its 140 rooms will be converted into transition spaces with wraparound services dedicated to supporting homeless people.
St. John's housing advocate Mark Wilson said the move to create more transition housing is good but other options would have cost less.
Wilson is fundraising to create modular housing shelters. He says communities in Ontario are seeing the benefits of getting people out of the cold at a better price.
"If it were done with that type of solution, we're looking at about $3.65 million," he said.
"We would own all of those buildings and that includes a central building, [a] 1,900 square foot unit that has four bathrooms, a nursing station, a kitchen."
NDP Leader Jim Dinn said Tuesday the conversion is a good first step — and one he feels was prompted by calls from his party and the public to take action on homelessness.
"On one level I can say that government is finally seeming to listen," Dinn said.
"You look at the five-point [housing] plan that they announced back in October, there was no mention of this."
Company approached N.L. Housing with idea
N.L. Housing communications manager Jenny Bowring said the interest for the project came from the hotel's owners, Clayton Hospitality.
Bowring said N.L. Housing was already exploring facilities to use as transition housing and the hotel presented an option that meets all their needs and can be quickly switched into a transition housing space.
The $6.9-million budget covers only the lease of the building, not the cost of what are called wraparound services, like mental health and addictions supports, harm reduction services and meals.
Dinn said he has questions about whether hotel staff will be trained in trauma-informed practices. Getting things up and running will be more complex than government thinks, he said.
He says the money could be used to renovate government buildings to turn into housing down the road — something the provincial government outlined in its recent housing plan.
"Making sure that no one has to live in a tent is key, but the second part is how do you make sure people stay housed?"
PC Leader Tony Wakeham said he has concerns about what the services inside the hotel will look like and where the staff will come from.
A lot of work still needs to be done before people can move in, said Wakeham, who accused the province of not acting on homelessness fast enough.
"It's been just put on the back burner," Wakeham said.
"And wasn't until, in reality, we saw tent city here in front of Confederation Building that this Furey Liberal government started to pay any attention to housing in this province."
Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Click here to visit our landing page.
With files from Heather Gillis