A former Dartmouth hotel is in the midst of being converted into supportive housing for up to 65 people.
AHANS and the North End Community Health Centre have purchased the former Travelodge in Dartmouth through a multi-million-dollar investment from the federal and provincial governments.
Part of that investment is being made through the second round of the Rapid Housing Initiative that Ottawa launched during the pandemic in response to the housing crisis.
AHANS and the NECHC are converting the former hotel rooms into supportive housing that aims to provide people who are currently unhoused with the resources they need.
“Mental health counsellors, registered nurses, occupational therapists, addictions counsellors — those kinds of clinical services that work with individuals where they are, in the space that they are, to help them navigate forward,” Graham said.
The provincial community services minister says some of the $3.5 million dollar investment from the province will be used to ensure the property is appropriate for long-term residency.
“There will be some renovations that we will want to do to ensure that we can accommodate everyone and provide sort of that permanent housing feeling,” Karla MacFarlane said.
MacFarlane says while there is no fixed date for when the doors will open, work is steadily happening behind the scenes to make the conversion happen as quickly as possible.
“We all are very hyper-aware that the snow is about to fall, so I can tell you that we truly are working 24/7,” she said.
Graham calls the project a “game-changer” and considers the increased government investment into affordable housing a “silver lining” of the pandemic.
“I think one of the positive outcomes was finally a much fuller and deeper understanding of what it means to be unhoused,” Graham said.
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