Stay informed with the LNN Daily Newsletter

Lethbridge Housing Authority receives council support to seek provincial funding for singles housing

Mar 7, 2018 | 3:08 PM

LETHBRIDGE – Lethbridge Housing Authority is hoping to secure provincial dollars to create housing for single people between the ages of 18 and 49 who have no dependents and are on fixed incomes like AISH, CPP Disability or Income Support.

At Monday’s meeting LHA CAO Robin James made a presentation to City Council, asking for support from the city – specifically, a letter from Mayor Chris Spearman, as they submit their business plan to the province, with a specific request for building social housing for singles.

“We’re looking at repurposing one of our high-rises. And then if we have permission to do that, we would of course look at building something to house the seniors that are in it first, and then repurpose that building and make that into a solely 18-49-year-old social housing units.”

James says they’ve noticed the gap for singles for some time, but LHA is now at the point where it’s using so many resources in their rent supplement program, they need to make sure they can help as many people as they can. To do that, they need to have social housing available for people or couples who have no family or children. That, she says, would free up some of their rent supplement to assist other clients in need or on a wait list.

But first they would need to build a fully accessible seniors unit first. The tower they’re looking at is not working for the seniors living there anymore but would work well for mobile singles.

“The reason they’re not working as well for our seniors anymore is just because our seniors have changed since they built those units in the 1980s. Our seniors, more of them are driving, we need more parking available, the elevators are quite small, so we need availability for them to bring wheelchairs and walkers in. The elevators are too small to bring more than two of them in there at this point. So really, they would work better for 18-49-year olds.”

Right now, James says there are about 300 singles or couple clients with no dependents who are on rent supplement. And there are 139 non-seniors in the seniors complex ages 50-64.

If the building can be repurposed, James adds that they may investigate partnering with someone to provide additional security or a concierge to ensure that those who are housed can deal with “guest management.”

Council voted unanimously to provide the letter of support.