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Simons: Homeless-housing project has Terwillegar Towne in an uproar P7 ~* d# u+ Z
& o9 s" e) H9 V8 h) u3 N% p% i" \Emily Salsbury is a Terwillegar Towne resident who opposes the proposed development of a 60-unit social housing project in her neighbourhood beside Holy Trinity Anglican Church.
0 {* L" H! B3 C7 N1 u8 d+ cPhotograph by: Bruce Edwards , Bruce Edwards/Edmonton Journal
) X! g- V, @* q/ s, mEDMONTON - It’s a debate dividing the quiet southwest suburb of Terwillegar Towne./ z, L: |; R4 `# N/ @+ g
- G) r- ]; H9 h# B2 t) b1 lIs the charming enclave, designed to mimic a 19th century village, the right place for a 60-unit supportive housing project for the recently homeless?
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The Jasper Place Health and Wellness Centre plans to build such a facility next year, on land leased from the Anglican Church. ?+ e/ ~2 H" W1 e0 W
! N6 a) Z0 l+ {9 |. \, XThe $12.1 million apartment building west of 156th Street and north of 14th Avenue is Edmonton’s first such project in an affluent new suburb, about as far from the inner city as you can get, geographically and socially.6 y2 ~/ g4 m$ t! s" t! E
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The argument has split the community league, and led to the creation of a Facebook advocacy group, Terwillegar Speaks, where impassioned residents vent fears about everything from their kids catching HIV to declining property values.
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Coun. Bryan Anderson, whose ward includes Terwillegar, is skeptical. He believes most clients will be hard-to-house single men in their mid-forties, who’ll be allowed to drink on-site.9 M1 f/ S( l2 N! m/ b E( v
) n4 Q+ u! ^9 o0 B“I don’t think that 60 middle-aged men in a building on the edge of Terwillegar Towne has much of a chance of success,” he says.
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“Sixty middle-aged men with mental illness and addiction problems in the boonies? Most of these guys smoke, and most of them can’t afford cigarettes. Where are they going to go to pick butts out of ashtrays? When they get tired of sitting in their rooms, where do they go?”
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4 @# b) V: e8 ?; ~( w: |He worries residents may loiter in Terwillegar Towne playgrounds, where, he explains, people simply aren’t used to seeing what he describes as heavy-set men with tattoos on their necks. Whether it’s fair or not, he says, neighbours will feel afraid.
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) [3 ~9 |2 x$ A! E; ]“This community is one hundred per cent residential. It’s covered with mothers with strollers. One or two dishevelled people with hoodies on and backpacks don’t seem to belong on that residential street.”* m8 ~. v% D4 V6 c
4 ]$ X; s. [7 O: H; hThe original plans for the facility, he says, include 20 bachelor and 40 one-bedroom units. Anderson wants the project delayed a year, to allow for a comprehensive community consultation — and scaled down, instead, to house 30 families, not 60 single men.
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$ [) [9 p: ^3 t/ _: ]Since the site is already zoned for apartments, Anderson says there’s nothing city council can do to stop the development. The only options open to frustrated residents, he says, are civil disobedience and public protest.' y/ r6 o6 z0 [1 T5 H9 q1 O8 g
: ^2 ?% Y! o R G- Q9 i: D8 `Murray Soroka, executive director of Jasper Place Health and Wellness, insists neighbourhood fears are exaggerated., o6 u+ Q4 a7 }
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The facility, he stresses, will not be a homeless shelter.9 j- ], R1 L6 d
7 w5 D" N' F4 Q% G2 _9 gTenants will be screened and selected for their suitability, and will pay rent for their apartments — about $720 a month for a one-bedroom unit, about 20 per cent below market rates.& Q M7 z" W6 @7 U1 `, M7 E7 X6 D
! p6 {4 _( o) O% R5 d% p4 nWhile most of the units will be bachelors or one-bedrooms, Soroka says that he has listened to community concerns and that up to nine suites will now be two-bedroom units, suitable for families.2 M; t. X. g7 g7 h" I7 ~
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Each tenant will have a personal caseworker, funded by the Housing First anti-homelessness initiative. There will also be a social worker assigned to the building, and support staff on-site 24 hours a day. A shuttle will take residents to work, to shop, to medical appointments.
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/ @+ n2 f& q( h4 o5 [9 @5 g4 }7 e; z“People have very stereotyped ideas about homelessness,” he says. “But we serve families, we serve women, children, people from all kinds of situations. The people who are going to live there want to be successful in their lives, just like everyone else.”
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But yes, he says, residents will be allowed to drink in their rooms. Their drug use won’t be strictly controlled either.
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3 g6 b( ^. z# ?* [: r“It’s not a dry building,” he says. “What people do in the privacy of their own home, I can’t stop.”( y, t: N2 K6 l2 E6 Y" }0 r! ]1 M* n
) q6 j# K k3 ]+ Q/ c0 X, wThat response won’t necessarily relieve community worries.
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When retail consultant Emily Salsbury bought her house, she chose Terwillegar Towne deliberately.( U- N/ Z$ ?* z d1 |) o
m: [9 H2 Q9 ]6 P1 S' N. [8 W“We do have a crime problem in Edmonton, and as a single woman, I chose this neighbourhood to feel safe.”3 ]$ F& i5 t4 M% E
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“I was very surprised to hear about the project,” she says. “It shocked me. That area is very secluded. You can’t access it from a major road. It’s way tucked into a back corner of Terwillegar.”
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The nearest grocery store is a 45 minute walk away. There are no social support services.
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2 h% B) Q/ }- J# p( e- [/ y“We all feel compassion. But if we’re actually trying to help people who have a right to housing, this is not the right place for them. We don’t have the resources.”( {. K7 I6 Y2 S) C
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Others in Terwillegar Towne quietly support the initiative.& A0 r% N2 j; C3 ^$ d! }
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Teacher Alison Palmer regularly walks her dogs past the proposed site of the apartment, next to the Holy Trinity Anglican Church.) W; H2 O. b* O# y
& |, ], K9 P9 r# W Q“For me, the issue of homelessness in Edmonton is a really important one, and I think the whole city has to help,” she says. “We need to open up our neighbourhoods. We can’t just say we’ll help people, but only in the downtown core.”# q% I3 Z3 d! A/ z/ Y3 b1 W6 d; |
. ]5 D2 t$ ~" X9 ^- n8 \* W9 IThere’s the debate in a nutshell. For years, we concentrated social and supportive housing in a few inner city neighbourhoods, supersaturating and overburdening them. It isn’t fair, and it isn’t sound urban planning, to create downtown ghettos. We’re citizens of one city, with equal rights and responsibilities. No one neighbourhood has the right to exclude residents it deems undesirable.! {2 X" f j* ?
' ]9 h: U0 D1 {Yet convincing suburbanites to welcome new neighbours who push them out of their comfort zone, isn’t easy. One could write off their complaints as NIMBY-ism. But these residents have some legitimate concerns.
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A 60-unit building concentrates a worrisome number of people with high needs in a single place. For this project to succeed, it needs to be properly executed, and built on an appropriate scale.
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]: ~8 u6 G$ CNor can you blame neighbours who are only now learning about a project that’s been in the planning stages for three years for feeling ambushed. Frank community consultation, much earlier in the process, would have helped build the trust necessary for this experiment in social integration to work.; N6 U4 K( ^6 B6 M
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Dave Hancock is the minister of human services, and the MLA for Edmonton-Whitemud, which includes Terwillegar Towne. He’s hearing plenty of complaints. But he stands by the project, which is 70 per cent funded by the province and 30 per cent funded by the federal government.: D) U" [0 M! @# ^9 I4 k
9 D* G4 V3 S4 g" e9 Z2 a“It’s essentially long-term housing for people who were formerly homeless who are ready to transition into the community,” he says. “These are people who are ready to be housed in a stable place and to have a chance for a stable life. If homeless people are going to have a chance to be successful, they need to have safe homes and to stay away from their usual haunts that cause problems.”( }# n5 f# z2 x% a
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Whatever the concerns about the lack of community consultation in the past, he says, we need to have a thoughtful debate now.
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3 H& z9 C9 j: h& ?& R% t0 a“What’s it going to take to be successful? We’ve got to have a rational discussion.”
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psimons@edmontonjournal.com) J- ~5 O3 _7 ~" H; \
0 U- n' J% H' M3 o- Z QTwitter.com/Paulatics
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9 Z2 p& C+ H6 m. O+ C! ^7 gPaula Simons is on Facebook. To join the conversation, go to www.facebook.com/EJPaulaSimons or visit her blog at edmontonjournal.com/Paulatics$ E6 v& Y& k, `/ b' l, h$ N
/ C9 M: y" K$ K6 r© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal |
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