The North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre (NBIFC) has broke ground on a transitional housing building that has been in the works for over 10 years.
Kathy Fortin, Executive Director of the NBIFC, says talks began about 12 years ago about what to do with the vacant lot across from their building on Cassells Street as she began to notice an increase in homelessness.
“The main thing was that the gentlemen who come out of jail, there’s no plan for them. There’s nowhere to go,” Fortin said.
The 30-unit “Suswin Village”, which means “nest” in Ojibwe, officially began construction last week. Fortin says the building won’t be a traditional homeless shelter, rather, a one-stop location for multiple services.
“When the person comes in, they’re going to have a plan. They might need to get their high school education. They might want to go to treatment. We’re going to have all of that available,” she said.
Fortin says over half of North Bay’s homeless population is Indigenous.
“Being able to do something like this is going provide a bit of a solution,” she said.
The project is being funded through support from both the provincial and federal governments, which Fortin says has taken a long time to secure. In total, the project will cost around $9 million.
Construction is estimated to take about 48 weeks and will be done by a company based out of Timmins which built a similar 70-unit facility in that city.
Fortin expecting Suswin Village to open in the early summer of 2022.
