London, Ont. developers band together for supportive housing project

A group of four local developers and London city council are gearing up for a new supportive housing project in the city’s Old South neighbourhood.

The project, located at 46 Elmwood Place, would convert the former long-term care home into 50 highly supportive housing units.

The units would provide wraparound care for individuals with complex needs, with services like mental health care, addiction treatment, educational resources, and employment counseling. All units would come full furnished and staff will be available 24/7 for support.

The project is ready to move forward, according to officials, and is just waiting on council approval.

“If we get this approved by council this month, we can start the construction this year, we can have people living off the streets and into 50 highly supportive housing spaces by next year,” London Mayor Josh Morgan said at the announcement Wednesday.

If approved, funding for the project will come from three sources: $2 million in one-time capital from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund, $500,000 in city money from an annual housing supplement budget and $5.7 million from the Health and Homelessness Fund for Change.

Indwell will be responsible for managing the facility.

“This project is a prime example on how different partners can come together to create meaningful change for those who need it in our city,” Morgan said.

Four local developers, Auburn Group, Drewlo Holdings, Sifton Properties and Tricar, came together to form Developing for Change for the facility, with more like it possible in the future.

Adam Carapella, vice-president at Tricar, hopes this project serves as a template for other developers to follow suit.

“This is certainly a welcome addition, but it’s 50 units. We need a lot more,” Carapella said. “Our group is looking at other possibilities, and we hope others do as well.”

The location was identified by the group as they thought it could be quickly converted to highly supportive housing. However, some work does need to be done on the building before it’s up and running.

“Not every unit has a full bathroom or full kitchenette facilities, so a lot of plumbing work has to go into it. We’ll also see how much of the HVAC system we can use,” Carapella said. “The units … are a pretty good size, we can work with a lot of the different rooms, wide hallways, and a lot of accessibility features.”

London city council endorsed a plan earlier this year that would help bring 600 new high-support housing units to the city over three years. So far, 93 new units have been established, including an expansion at the House of Hope. Morgan says the units will “fundamentally change what is happening on our streets.”

“We know that there are individuals in (existing units) who the year before they came into that space …was in the emergency room 221 times. Since being in supportive housing, that person has only been in the emergency room two or three times,” Morgan said.

“It is transformational, and that is why it is a critical component of the whole of community response.”

A report on the project is headed to the strategic priorities and policy committee on June 18, followed by council on June 25.