(Photo: Abby Zieverink, EverythingGP staff)

By Abby Zieverink

Coordinated care campus

Coordinated Care Campus residents move into temporary housing as “extensive renovations” occur

Mar 1, 2022 | 5:32 PM

As the City of Grande Prairie moves into phase two of ongoing renovations to the Coordinated Care Campus, portable trailers have been set up outside the former Stonebridge Hotel in order to serve as temporary housing for residents living at the facility.

The purchase of the land and building was ratified by council back in late June 2021, which will see the former hotel and conference centre be converted into a supportive housing hub.

The City took possession of the facility back on September 1, 2021, which Chris Manuel, the Director of Protective & Social Services with the city says is when the work began.

“That commenced the first phase of the project which involved completing the necessary renovations, program development, licensing and inspections to accommodate the urgent tenancy of the displaced Parkside project residents for November.”

By November 4, the facility was officially licensed by the province, and occupancy of the former parkside residents was complete.

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With phase two of the project underway, Manual says it will consist of “extensive renovations” to the existing facility.

“We are going through all of the various inspections and designs as we prepare for the full completion of those designs,” he stated.

Those renovations include:

• Commercial space is being completely renovated, with city staff set to occupy the office space by the third quarter.
• On-site medical clinic which will provide on-site, in-reach care including primary care physician services.
• Residential spaces are being completely renovated include upgrades to fire suppression, accessibility, and energy efficiency.

Manuel says due to the extent of these renovations projected, the roughly 27 persons currently living in the supportive housing facility will be temporarily relocated onsite to trailers that have been brought in.

“In an effort to provide the least amount of disruption to the residents and most timely completion of the work, and to ensure residents have access to the existing programs and services they currently have, a decision was made to temporarily locate them in those interim accommodations on-site,” he stated.

The time frame for construction to be complete at the Coordinated Care Campus is three to six months, but it is not known how long residents will be situated in the temporary housing.

“The completion of the entire project would be towards the latter part, that six-month mark hopefully. It is possible that the tenants that are displaced presently could be back sooner just depending on when various phases are able to be completed,” added Manuel.

Earlier this month, there was a fire alarm that went off within the residential area of the facility, Manuel explains it led to an investigation, to determine the cause of why the fire alarm was triggered.

“As that was being investigated, we determined that the fire separation in the residential area is one that is to historical code versus current code standards, which is permitted if the building continued to occupy as it had been operated over the last number of years, you can continue to use that historical code,” he explained.

“However, because we want to provide the best living environment that we can provide, the city is looking at what improvements can be made to improve the overall life safety of the building. We would like to go to a higher standard as opposed to a minimum standard.”

He says they have already made some improvements to the fire alarm and egress systems within the building.

Manuel adds they are working with an architect consultant on what reasonable improvements can and should be made to stay in alignment with the current fire code requirement, as resident safety is the top priority.

The facility is still set to fall within the allocated budget of $15.5 million, which will co-locate 120 community supportive housing units with 24/7 wraparound supports, such as onsite medical care, mental health and addiction supports, food, recreation, and other needed programming.

Recruitment of the Coordinated Care advisory committee is recommended by administration to proceed this month, March 2022.

(Photo: Abby Zieverink, EverythingGP, staff)