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New housing facility and life skills programming for at risk youth · Kvetch & Release

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  At risk. Young individuals facing housing security and homelessness in Windsor will now have
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  a new place to receive refuge and support thanks to funding from all three levels
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  of government and a partnership between the City of Windsor, Public Safety Canada,
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  Canada, Mortgage and Housing Corp, Windsor Essex Community Housing Corporation and the Windsor
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  Essex Children's Aid Society. This is a youth support of housing complex with dedicated
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  life skills programming and it is able to support up to fifteen people between eighteen
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  and twenty three transitioning out of the child welfare system going into adulthood. What
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  a really great new thing. Joining me right now to discuss this is Cynthia
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  Summers, the CEO of Windsor Essex Community Housing Corporation. How are you doing
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  today? Hi? Good afternon John. I'm great. I'm enjoying the rain.
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  We need it. We do need it. The plants are going to
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  love it. And up to fifteen individuals need this new housing facility, don't
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  they absolutely? And as we've see they're moving into their new home. It's
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  incredible. So it's happening right now. That is like talk about having a
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  rollout of the announcement at the perfect time. What does it mean for these
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  fifteen individuals who are now going to be finding themselves in this new support of
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  housing facility. What does that look like. I think it's life changing for
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  them. I can tell you that a few of the youth when going through
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  their new home to preview it, we're in awe of how beautiful the building
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  is and this new life that they're going to have. I think it gives
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  them a stable and safe place to build their lives and learn life skills,
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  so you know, in a couple of years they're going to be out on
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  their own. I think it gives them a place they can be proud to
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  bring their friends home to, and I think it gives them stability and support.
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  It's wonderful. Yeah, it seems like it might not be something that
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  people think about that often, but that eighteen to twenty three year old group
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  that are transitioning out of child welfare into adulthood, it seems like that could
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  be a very precarious time for vulnerable individuals to potentially, you know, slip
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  through cracks or not have the benefit of a supportive network that is ongoing.
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  So this sounds just incredible. Yeah, it is. It's a precarious time
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  for all young adults, right because you're losing the protection of either your family
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  or the Children's Aid or you know, support systems, and you're transitioning into
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  being on your own. And these kids, these youth don't have that support,
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  but they're going to have it now, and they're going to have a
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  home from which they can go to school, pursue their academic studies, they
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  can work. They'll really have that base, and you know, the programming
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  provided will be everything from financial literacy to how to do laundry and to how
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  to cook, important skills that people absolutely need to know how to do,
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  something that I think should probably be involved in more of our high schools as
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  well. Some of those things they have been removed over successive years, but
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  it's been about a decade or excuse me, fifteen years since I've been in
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  high school, so I can't comment about that quite frankly. What an incredible
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  partnership here though, with the amount of different organizations that are involved in it,
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  it really is, and I think it's truly a model to look at
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  to go forward. We built the building and we build it to accommodate fifteen
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  youth and so we have three accessible units. We have an elevator up to
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  the accessible area. If you drive by this house on Crawford, dare say
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  it. Dare I say that it's one of the most beautiful houses on the
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  street. I think our part of providing the housing, and then we're going
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  to manage the building afterwards, making sure it's safe for the youth, making
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  sure it's well maintained. And then we have Children's Aide who are going to
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  be supporting these youths as they transition out of Children's Say It, and then
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  New Beginnings and other agency in the city will be providing all the social work,
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  all the support services, the teaching the young people about daily living.
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  So it's great. And you know, the other collaboration has been the mayor
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  and the City of Windsor has really supported this initiative, but also the federal
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  government has supported it and the provincial and when you get everybody together, this
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  is what you get. We built this building. We came an underbudget.
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  It's gorgeous. People. You know, when I first went into this building,
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  it's the only time that's happened to me in my role. But I
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  started crying because I looked at it and I said, this is the new
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  phase of deeply affordable housing. It's beautiful, there's no stigmas for the people
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  living there, it's wonderful for the neighborhood. I think it's going to be
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  a real success story. Well, I mean it sounds like it already is,
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  especially people moving into it right now. We know that more than two
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  million dollars of the funding for it came from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporations
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  Rapid Housing Initiative, which was launched four years ago to address housing needs.
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  Of course, no surprise that that popped up just you know, during COVID
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  while that was happening, But just how incredible that as a result of that
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  funding you're able to build this modern and attractive home for you know, youth
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  that are transitioning into adulthood or the child wealth welfare system. It just this
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  is this is the kind of story we need right now. I agree,
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  I agree, and I know that the CIF and I AM conversation, it's
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  said, you know, we need now more of these. We can prove
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  that this is efficient and it's a good start for youth. And I don't
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  know if you're aware. But some of these youths were living in motel rooms.
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  Really this is a dramatic improvement for their lives. And so with these
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  fifteen individuals who can move into it, are they expected to be there from
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  the age of eighteen through twenty three? What is the duration of stay that
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  you expect for it, just to try to understand the scope, Well,
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  they could, that's a possibility. The other possibility is they gain those life
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  skills, they gain that independence quickly, of course, and they stay maybe
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  a year or two years. It'll really depend on the youth themselves and what
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  they want and where they know, what they achieve and their growth. Well,
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  like any group, youth are not a monolith. Every individual has their
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  own individual needs and it takes everyone their own amount of time. I want
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  to thank you so much, Cynthia for joining me to break this all down
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  again. This is the kind of story that we need right now here in
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  Windsor. It's a great news story, especially on a rainy day. Thank
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  you so much. Oh you're so welcome, have a great afternoon. Thank
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  you. Cynthia Summers is the chief executive officer of Windsor Essex Community Housing corporation,