Brockville Mayor Gives Update on Supportive Housing Project

Brockville – Brockville Mayor Matt Wren took to Facebook on Wednesday to give an update on the proposed United Counties of Leeds & Grenville’s action plan for the use of the city’s former Water Pollution Control Centre administrative building at 1805 County Road 2 for a supportive housing project.

In his post, he said that earlier this week in a special meeting of the Joint Services Committee, which is made up of Mayors from the United Counties municipalities, the City of Brockville and the Towns of Prescott and Gananoque approved the go-ahead for 24 supportive housing cabins to be installed on the property of the former Water Pollution Control Centre administrative building.

The City of Brockville is providing the former administrative building and land to the United Counties of Leeds & Grenville under a long-term lease arrangement to become the site of the supportive housing project. The property will become available in mid-2024.

He went on to say that the administrative building is intended for the future development of units with specialized support services, and the exterior area will accommodate a small neighbourhood of twenty-four cabins that will be offered to individuals in chronic homelessness.

The cabin neighbourhood is to be supervised 24/7 by the John Howard Society and their staff who will engage the residents in various services and programs. The 24 units are intended for short-term stabilization to move the resident on to longer-term supportive housing when available.

Mayor Wren said that the cabin project should be ready for occupancy by December and will help relieve pressure on other, currently very limited, community resources.

“I am grateful for the unanimous support of my Mayoral colleagues in moving this project forward, and to MPP Steve Clark for his unrelenting advocacy for our community,” said Matt Wren. Mayor of Brockville.

The project is funded through the United Counties by the provincial Homelessness Prevention Program.

This was proposal one suggested by the Action Plan to End Homelessness and Address Housing Crisis in Leeds & Grenville put forth by the United Counties earlier this year.

In that report, according to UCLG’s Joint Services Committee 2023 Homelessness Prevention Program Investment Update, 85% of homeless people and families live in Brockville. Furthermore, one-third of the Counties’ recently housed homeless people return to homelessness within six months. Focusing on supportive housing within Brockville with its existing health and community services and public transit, will be the best use of resources with the greatest effect in addressing the challenges of these homeless individuals.

The report continued with, “This property is an excellent candidate for a Specialized Supports program, similar to Indwell’s Railway City Lofts in St. Thomas. The building is ideally sized with a layout conducive to rapid and cost-effective adaptive reuse. An assessment of the existing floor plans suggests potential for 15 one-bedroom apartments plus staff offices, tenant amenity and health/programming space, and a servery to accommodate a daily meal program.”