Construction of Stratford women’s shelter expansion nears completion as capital campaign approaches $1-million goal

A year has passed since Stratford’s Optimism Place Women’s Shelter embarked on its $1-million Building On Hope capital campaign and began construction on a $5-million, 10-bedroom, 7,000 square-foot expansion to its current shelter building.

Article content

Though progress on the build has been delayed slightly over the past year, Optimism Place executive director Jasmine Clark says the expanded space should be ready for shelter staff to begin setting up rooms, common spaces and offices by November with the expectation of opening it up to women and children in need at the start of the new year.

Article content

“There’s lots of heavy equipment still in our parking lot, but we are well on our way to completing our build,” Clark said. “We’re coming out of the finishing stages now. I would say we’re probably 80 per cent done. We’re a little bit behind on the build just because that’s the way things go. There’s always delays in construction, but we’ve had a really great contractor (Graceview Enterprises Inc.) who’s worked with us since the beginning.

Article content

“…We’re adding 10 bedrooms with 15-18 beds depending on the families that will occupy the space. The third floor is almost finished. The flooring’s done, the bathroom fixtures are going in, and then we’re a little bit slower on the bottom floors. So we’re getting there.”

Once construction finishes up and the Optimism Place team can get into the expanded portion of the shelter, Clark said it will take a few months to get living spaces ready for residents, new staff hired and new systems online.

“We’re essentially doubling our space, so we need twice as much capacity to serve women who will occupy this space,” Clark said. “There will be a bit of a transition period. We’ll essentially be doubling our staffing to serve women in the new space.”

Article content

And just as construction surpassed that 80 per cent mark, the Building On Hope campaign has also exceeded more than 80 per cent of its $1-million goal.

“As of today, we’ve raised $838,000,” Clark said. “The community’s been phenomenal. We’re a year in. Last September we had our launch event at the church next door, and since then it’s been all hands on deck. We’ve had lots of different events, we’ve had community rally around our build, rally around our campaign. We’ve only got $162,000 to go, so we’re in that final push.

“We knew $1 million was a lofty goal and we hadn’t done a capital campaign before, but the community’s been great. And the piece for me that has been really important is the awareness we’ve been able to build about Optimism Place, what we do, who we serve and what it looks like to live in shelter.”

Article content

In addition to the $1 million being raised in the community, the shelter expansion is also being funded to the tune of nearly $3.4 million from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) shelter and transitional housing initiative, along with an additional $500,000 from Optimism Place’s capital reserves. The CMHC is also providing $225,000 annually over the next six years to support operating costs of the expanded shelter.

“So we will need to figure out how to fund operating costs after that six years,” Clark said. “We’ve made hundreds of new friends through the campaign. New business that haven’t known about us and therefore haven’t supported us in the past have come forward to support the campaign. Lots of individual donors have expressed interest in supporting us now and ongoing, which is nice. We’ve also had some third-party (fundraising) events that people have committed to running next year for us again. So we’re getting support now and well into the future.

Article content

“What we’re creating, it will live on in the community in perpetuity. It will always be available for women well beyond all of our time, so that’s important to me. It’s more than just what’s happening now.”

Anecdotally, Clark says the number of women in need of shelter services continues to exceed shelter capacity. While the expansion will help Optimism Place provide safe, transitional housing to more women and children, stays in shelter are getting longer as a result of a lack of affordable housing options locally, and shelter beds continue to be filled as soon as residents leave.

“Women are staying longer because there obviously is a lack of safe and affordable housing in the community,” Clark said. “That creates a bit of a backlog and people can’t move out of the shelter as fast as we’d like so we can make room for more intake. We have to turn away women every day who call for a bed. Beds don’t remain empty for more than a day. We’ve had to become, as an organization, a lot more housing focused. We’ve had to learn to work with landlords, for example, where before women could more easily find housing. We’ve had to get really good at navigating market-rent housing and supporting women in navigating those barriers.

“It’s hard. It’s hard for anyone, and for the women who stay here and have the additional and complex barriers that they face experiencing violence, it’s not easy. We’ve really had to shift the way we do our work. Whether people want to stay here forever or not, they can’t. We’re meant to be a short-term stay. I’m hoping the additional capacity allows us to have a little bit more flexibility.”

To learn more about the Optimism Place expansion and to donate to the Building On Hope campaign, visit optimismplace.com/capitalcampaign.

[email protected]

Article content