Shelters and Transitional Housing Projects

[rocketphish]

The real reason for the YMCA decision:

YMCA holding on to flagship Centretown building as site’s assessed value falls

David Sali, OBJ
March 6, 2025

After shopping the property since 2022, the YMCA has decided not to sell its marquee building on Argyle Avenue after it became clear the site would not fetch the organization’s desired asking price. The YMCA will remain in the downtown landmark, which was built in 1969, for at least the next five years, the organization announced on Wednesday. Trevor McAlmont, the president and CEO of the YMCA National Capital Region, said the organization talked to “a few developers” that were interested in buying the property but couldn’t reach a deal. McAlmont said the Taggart Family YMCA building, which sits on about 1.6 acres of prime downtown real estate, had an assessed value in the “high 30 millions” of dollars several years ago.

However, he said changing market conditions had reduced the site’s value to the $20-million range by last year as costs associated with razing the aging building and putting up a new one in its place had soared since the pandemic.

“Demolition costs went through the roof,” McAlmont said. “Even zoning costs were very, very high. Those were all the things that were limiting (potential buyers) from confirming a purchase. Clearly, the market affected the value and sale price of the building.” The downtown Y provides services such as a health, fitness and aquatics centre and a daycare facility as well as training and employment services for newcomers. The YMCA’s Shenkman Residence, which is attached to the building, provides transitional housing for about 250 people.

McAlmont said the Taggart location currently serves more than 3,000 people a year. A registered charity, the YMCA National Capital Region receives funding from individual donors as well as all three levels of government.

When the Y put the property up for sale more than two years ago, it said the building required about $38 million worth of infrastructure upgrades. McAlmont said the organization will seek new funding to help pay for improvements such as a modern HVAC system and roof repairs. “The building itself is solid, but like any building that’s 50 years old, it does need touch-ups,” he said.

As the organization embarks on a new five-year strategic plan, it is exploring new ways of using the building to offer even more services to those who need them, McAlmont said. “We want to stay in Centretown addressing those essential needs as we’ve always done. This is our commitment, to be there for at least the next five years and beyond if possible.”

https://obj.ca/ymca-holding-on-to-centretown-building/

[rocketphish]

City pulling plug on newcomer reception centres
Memo says Sprung structures no longer needed as shelter demand from newcomers falls

Arthur White-Crummey · CBC News
Posted: Mar 12, 2025 10:50 AM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour ago

Citing a decrease in demand from newcomers in the shelter system, the City of Ottawa is cancelling plans to set up tent-like reception centres to house asylum seekers.

The city had planned to open one or possibly two newcomer reception centres, the first near the Nepean Sportsplex and a second in Kanata, should the need arise.

The plan was meant to respond to a massive influx of unhoused refugee claimants, forcing the city to shelter people in municipal recreation centres.

The newcomer reception centres would have relied on tent-like facilities known as Sprung structures, after a leading company that manufactures them.

The plan prompted opposition from some residents who worried that the structures would become permanent shelters. Those emotions boiled over during a confrontational public information session at the Nepean Sportsplex in December.

But on Wednesday, the city sent a memo to councillors and media explaining that the reception centres are no longer needed. At the peak, about 1,000 asylum claimants were in the shelter system. That number has now dropped to 820 newcomers, the city said.

"As a result of decreasing demand and new opportunities outlined in this memo, staff are adjusting the infrastructure requirements in the newcomer reception proposal that is being negotiated with Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)," it said.

The memo explained that there are new options that can house migrants. It noted that the YMCA is no longer pursuing the sale of one of its buildings that is being used for newcomers, and the city is working to convert additional floors to house more.

The city is also working with the federal government to extend its use of a building on Lanark Avenue.

Moreover, the city noted that preliminary work on the newcomer reception centres showed that it would take longer than expected to build and open them. That stemmed in part from the need to launch a competitive procurement process.

"As such, the revised timeline for the construction of these structures facilitates staff's ability to pursue other opportunities to meet the need within a similar timeline," the memo said. "These new opportunities, paired with demand trending downwards, will eliminate the need to develop the newcomer reception centres at 1645 Woodroffe Avenue and 40 Hearst Way."

The city had initially signalled its intention to award a contract to Toronto-based BLT construction, prompting opposition from the local construction industry. After local companies showed that they were also qualified, the city opened up the process.

The memo said it won't be possible to move all newcomers out of community shelters right away, and an "overflow" site or sites may still be required next winter.

It said other elements of the city's newcomer response plan, separate from the Sprung structures, will continue, including a building at 1754 St. Joseph Ave. and acquiring scattered buildings to house newcomers.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...city-1.7481330

[Richard Eade]

It sounds as if 172 O'Connor is being sold by the City for $700,000 to the people who run the neighbouring (137 Nepean) rooming house. This will be a huge jump up in scale of the rooming house operation.

https://pub-ottawa.escribemeetings.c...umentId=245942

The building was built in 1910 and is listed on the city’s Heritage Register. This should protect features like the external balconies, with their unique fire escape ladders. (Check out Google’s streetview to see them.)

The plan is to renovate the property to create a ‘Women Only’ rooming house. It is telling that the City’s investigation found that it was not viable to retrofit the building for use as a shelter. However, I presume that, as a private operation, there may be less stringent requirements to provide full accessibility.

All-in-all, I think that transferring this building out of City hands will be good for it. That said, I would like the City to continue to support the upkeep of the building by renting rooms within it to help house women in need.

PS Anyone know if this property would be eligible for the ‘face-lift’ program? I know that it is primarily for properties along Bank, but I recall that there was some lateral extension along Somerset. I wonder if Nepean could also be included.

[J.OT13]

Ottawa opens transitional housing centre in vacant downtown office space
By Josh Pringle, CTV Ottawa
Published: July 03, 2025 at 4:46PM EDT

Empty office space in downtown Ottawa has been transformed into a transitional housing centre, providing temporary housing and social and skills development services for 140 adults experiencing homelessness.

The City of Ottawa unveiled its new transitional housing facility for single adults in a four-storey space on Queen Street Thursday morning, a 30,000 sq. ft. space that will be operated by CCI Ottawa.

“It’s another step toward building a city that takes care of our most vulnerable,” Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said on X.

The top three floors of the building feature a “sleep pod system” equipped with a bed, four partial-height walls, a curtain for the entrance, a personal locker, and a reading light for individuals.

According to the City of Ottawa, the building also has kitchens, dining areas, washrooms, showers, laundry facilities, lounge areas, and dedicated rooms for meetings and workshops.

“Clients will also have access to settlement and employment support, housing search case management, short-term mental health crisis workers, and weekly life skills workshops. The facility will be staffed 24/7 by CCI Ottawa personnel and on-site security,” the City of Ottawa said in a statement.


In March 2024, Council approved a 10-year lease for the vacant office building at a cost of $4.38 million, with an additional $1.48 million allocated for fit-up improvements.

A point-in-time count in Ottawa showed 2,952 people were experiencing homelessness in the capital in October. The survey showed 42 per cent of respondents were immigrants and refugees, according to the city.









https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/articl...-office-space/

[rocketphish]

Gatineau shipping container village prepares residents for the next step
Opened in December, Village Transitiôn could soon be home to 100

Omar Dabaghi-Pacheco · CBC News
Posted: Sep 10, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 hours ago

The hardest part of Jean-François Bourgon's transition to apartment living was letting go of the freedom and community he'd come to know after a lifetime on the streets and years living in a sprawling tent city in central Gatineau, Que.

"We're a big family here," Bourgon said of the dozens of weathered tents and permanently parked RVs in the parking lot of the former Robert Guertin Centre, now demolished.

"I was in an apartment for two years and I had to let go of my apartment to come back here because I was missing the place and my friends," he said.

But life here can be rough, too. Robbery, addiction and the struggle to survive are daily realities.

Now there's another option for Bourgon and his neighbours, right on the edge of the parking lot they call home.

In the winter of 2023, developer Devcore brought the local business community together to set up heated ice fishing tents at the site, so the growing homeless population could survive the winter.

By May 2024, those were removed to pave the way for sturdier shelters made of shipping containers. Village Transitiôn's first residents moved into their new homes that December.

It's a compact, fenced-in community of 85 containers transformed into 100 independent living units. Advocates describe it as an important stepping stone from homelessness to independent living, without the isolation that sometimes comes with it.

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...step-1.7107649

[rocketphish]

Ottawa's first office-to-housing conversion 'feels more like home'
Transitional housing facility on Queen Street welcomed first residents this summer

CBC News
Posted: Oct 07, 2025 11:13 AM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours ago

Asylum seekers at Ottawa's first office-to-transitional-housing conversion credit the new facility with getting them out of the city's shelter system and providing them with opportunities to find permanent accommodation and employment.

A former movie theatre turned office building at 230 Queen St. welcomed its first residents this summer after being retrofitted to provide transitional housing for 140 people. Eighty-one asylum seekers have already moved into the facility, which is operated by Catholic Centre for Immigrants (CCI) Ottawa.

"The place is amazing, clean, proper, safe," Djiboutian architect Abdourahman Hassan told CBC during a recent tour of the facility.

Hassan came to 230 Queen St. from the city's shelter system and said he was extremely grateful for his private sleeping pod, after previously sharing rooms with people who were using drugs and experiencing mental health crises.

Three floors of offices that had been vacant for five years — nearly 30,000 square feet — have been converted under the design supervision of Ottawa's CSV Architect.

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...reet-1.7652680