About 25 people attended a community consultation session to look at the idea of creating an emergency shelter and/or transitional housing/affordable housing facility in the community.
That session, held for about three hours April 18 in the foyer of the Cow Palace, was facilitated by the Mountain View Emergency Shelter Society (MVESS) and representatives of the Alberta Rural Development Network (ARDN).
MVESS vice-chair Carol Johnston says it's too early to say whether or not such a facility would be viable and if so, where it would be built -- in Olds or elsewhere in the county.
She notes the ARDN has a contract with MVESS to analyze the viability of an emergency shelter. It's looking at whether the shelter would best exist with -- or separate from -- some kind of transitional housing/affordable housing facility, as well as how best to finance construction and ongoing operation of it.
That contract expires in mid-May. Johnston said the ARDN began working on the report about six months ago.
"I think that we heard that there is a need within Mountain View County for a) emergency shelter; b) more affordable housing, perhaps transitional housing, but that we need to look at the whole spectrum of housing. I think they call it the continuum of housing. And I think that we feel that there is a need. How can we go about servicing that need?" she asked during an interview with the Albertan.
Johnston is not sure an emergency shelter and transitional housing/affordable housing could coexist in the same building.
"I don't think that that is possible," she said. "With an emergency shelter, there are some security issues that are involved and so that cannot necessarily be a part of affordable housing. So the emergency shelter would be perhaps one aspect and then the other aspect, would be the affordable housing."
However, she said connecting the two buildings in some way might enable the housing facility to help finance operation of the emergency shelter.
"Part of what you're doing there supports the other part," Johnston said.
However, "is that something that we're going to do? I don't know that," she added.
Johnston said another option to help make the emergency shelter viable might be to rent or lease space on the bottom floor to commercial or retail enterprises.
Johnston said the MVESS has been working on the idea of creating an emergency shelter for people fleeing domestic violence for about eight years.
"But finding the money to build that shelter has become an issue," she said. "We've sort of gone down one path and it did not lead us where we wanted to go, so we've had to take another path.
"What we found out is that in order to access funding, or to apply for major funding -- be it the government or agencies -- they're looking for a needs assessment. Is there in fact a need in the community?
"And that's where the Alberta Rural Development Network comes in. This is what they're doing for us. We've contracted them to do a needs analysis," Johnston added.
"They will also do a financial analysis for it. What is it going to cost to build the type of facility that we're looking at? Can we get the funding for that? Do we qualify for funding for that? Are we going to be able to sustain that facility once it gets built?"
That's why the community consultation session was held; to inform members of the community about the project and get some input from them as to what they'd like to see.
People from across the county attended, including residents of Didsbury, Sundre, Carstairs and Bowden. Some represented municipal governments.
Johnston said when the MVESS began working on obtaining an emergency shelter, the idea was that it would be built in Olds. If one is created, she's not sure now if that's where it will be located. It all depends on what's the most efficient, viable location.
She said the idea of what sort of facility to build has also changed.
"I think that the whole aspect of emergency shelters has evolved," Johnston said. "When we started eight years ago, that's what there was. There were emergency shelters where people who were escaping domestic violence went.
"And then they were sent for further counselling and they maybe went to another facility. And I think what the idea has become is that if one can house all of these within one facility, that that works best."
