Move-in day nears at Aspen Place
Posted Aug 25, 2022 07:45:00 PM.
A first-of-its-kind next step for local families fleeing abuse.
Final preparations are being made at Aspen Place in Kitchener ahead of move-in day, which is expected next week.
The site offers three large family units with seven bedrooms in total and is close to amenities many families may need like public transit, groceries, schools, and more.
According to The Women's Crisis Services of Waterloo Region, the project is meant to help bridge the gap between staying in shelter and living independently.
“So that's what Aspen Place will offer these families,” said Jennifer Hutton, CEO of Women's Crisis Services WR. “Once they leave shelter, they can come and stay at Aspen Place while having some staff support to get ready for next steps.
The project also comes as Hutton said there's a lot of local need for next-step transitional housing.
“The need has only increased, domestic violence rates have only gone up during the pandemic, and everybody in the community is quite familiar with the affordable housing crisis that's happening,” Hutton said. “So that's really impacting us in terms of many of the families we support in shelter are waiting for subsidized housing.”
She said those wait lists also continue to grow, as is the length of time families are staying in shelter while they wait.
“Emergency shelter was not intended for long stays so we needed something to fit in that middle where families still have some staff support and they have safe, affordable housing while they wait for longer-term subsidized housing,” said Hutton. “And we need to do that because our demand for shelter beds is increasing and then what we're seeing is it's becoming a bottleneck.”
Hutton said they operate about 90 shelter beds in total and normally run at or near capacity and, at any given time, about half of those staying in shelter are kids.
“So it's been a problem that we've needed to solve, Aspen place is going to be one small piece in that pie and we need definitely a bigger solution and that's stuff that we'll be thinking on and working on as we figure out how to run a transitional housing program.”
And even before Aspen Place has officially opened, Hutton has already suggested it may be just the first step on a path to more local transitional housing in the future.
“We'd love to have locations whether it's rurally because we serve Waterloo Region, we'd love to have space in Cambridge, the need is there.”
