Affordable Housing
There is a tremendous need for affordable housing here in Regina! According to the June 15th 2010 edition of The Financial Post, Regina has the country’s 2nd lowest apartment vacancy rate at .8%, with only Quebec City having a lower rate of .4%.
How is Affordable Housing connected with Souls Harbour Rescue Mission?
Over the years we have seen a lot of homeless people come through our doors. We were able to offer emergency help such as food, shelter, and clothing, but what then? It was clear that we needed to start thinking long term and a more permanent solution needed to be found.
If the root cause of someone’s homelessness was an addiction or a mental illness, we could help them deal with those obstacles through the LifeChange Program, but where would they go after that?
But what about the working poor? The young man who works for minimum wage and sleeps at a different friends place every week? Or the single mom who works as a waitress, struggling to keep her child in daycare while trying to find an affordable and safe place where the two of them can live? There are a lot of people looking for a place they can call their own.
This is what Affordable Housing looks like to us:
In July of 2008 we officially opened “Harbour House”, an apartment building that was constructed through a partnership with the Saskatchewan Housing Corporation. That facility has 20 bachelor suites and five 1 bedroom suites.
