Transitional housing development planned for old Quality Inn

CTV Calgary: Controversy over transitional housing The Calgary Drop-in Centre announced plans to turn the old Quality Inn into transitional housing. Ina Sidhu has reaction for neighbours.

The old Quality Inn in the northeast will be turned into transitional housing for low-income Calgarians to help ease the crunch for affordable accommodation in the city.

Officials from the Calgary Drop-In Centre and Rehabilitation Centre made the announcement on Monday morning saying that the organization has applied for a development permit for the old hotel on Edmonton Trail. N.E.

“Today we filed with the city a development permit application and we propose to seek municipal approval to turn this building into 120 residences for those critically needing transitional housing,” said Andy Lockhart, Chair of the Board of the Drop-In Centre.

Debbie Newman is the Executive Director and says they are very excited by the announcement.

“We do wonderful work, we do valuable work in the community and we know that there is a tremendous need for housing in this city. The challenges will be immense but we know the support from those who believe in the Drop-in Centre and what we do are there to back us up a hundred per cent,” said Newman.

The Drop-In Centre acquired the vacant hotel in a bankruptcy auction in 2012 for $8M and has been working to turn it into homes for lower income residents for the past two years.

“We know we have some challenges on our hands and are willing to work with the community and with government to address the challenges of affordable housing in this city,” said Newman.

Drop-In officials say they know that they will have their work cut for them to convince some people to see the project as a valuable addition to the area.

“There has to be a concerted effort by many people in the community and not just the Drop-In Centre. We know that with any building we put up in the past, we faced resistance. We’ve had enormous challenges, we’ve succeeded. We’ve become successful at providing affordable housing to all people that come into our shelter, and it’s not just affordable, it has to be a range of housing that meets the needs of the people that come to the centre,” said Newman.

She says they have over 4000 people on a waiting list for affordable housing in Calgary and that this project will help ease the need.

“It’s really important that people understand that this will not be a shelter. It is not zoned for a shelter and that the area that is beyond this section will be sub-divided and turned into office space,” said Newman. “We need to champion the cause and we need to be able to provide affordable housing to those people in need. Everyone deserves to be housed.”

Lockhart says there are a number of people in the shelter who should be in transitional housing but the units simply don’t exist.

“We got to the point where it was time to drive on,” said Lockhart. “What we want to do is provide independent living units as a small step towards the solution that was identified by the Calgary Homeless Foundation in their ten year plan and our message today is that we all need to work together to solve the housing crisis and we believe that this is a necessary and timely part of the solution.”

Newman says some of the rooms and infrastructure will require some alterations now and they will do some landscaping after that.

Officials say the zoning requires the facility to rent out 20 per cent of the floor area to be commercial space and they will rent it to commercial tenants.