St. Thomas partners with Indwell again to build more supportive housing

St. Thomas is teaming up with Indwell to transform former Balaclava Street Public School into supportive housing.

The City of St. Thomas is continuing its partnership with Indwell to build more supportive housing.

They will convert the former Balaclava Street Public School into 78 units of supportive housing, along with essential supports to help residents with health and housing stability and independence.

The project will retrofit the former school into 36 units, as well as 42 more units in a new addition to the building.

“We continue to be visited by other communities who come see what we’re doing and why we’re doing it in this order,” said St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston.

“This council said from the beginning, saying housing first. If we can remove homelessness, we remove a lot of other issues in our community. I can’t leave the provincial government out, as they keep sending us pretty good large amounts of money to do these projects.”

This project is the next in the partnership with the Christian charity to reach net zero homelessness in St. Thomas.

“At Indwell, we believe in building more than housing — we build communities where people can find hope, health, and a sense of belonging,” Jeff Neven, CEO at Indwell said in a news release.

“Every door we open together creates a permanent solution to homelessness. As a Christian charity, we are dedicated to fostering inclusive, affordable housing communities that support individuals on their journey to stability. We’re proud to work alongside the city of St. Thomas to create lasting change.”

Preston said he believes a large role of councils in Ontario is housing and give people a better chance to succeed.

“People currently completely unhoused would be the first ones into those to these units,” said Preston.

“We continue to work with Indwell on the supportive housing side of having, 24-hour-a-day mental health and addiction support in there and other supports like healthcare and employment. We’ll continue to house people because we think without a house or apartment, you’ve got a far greater chance of striking out in this world than being successful.”