Cedar Point, photos courtesy Everything GP Staff/The Mustard Seed

By Erika Rolling

Community

An inside look at Cedar Point, Grande Prairie’s newest supportive housing

Apr 22, 2024 | 12:40 PM

The Mustard Seed is now fully operating Cedar Point, previously called the Coordinated Care Campus.

Cedar Point is a supportive housing building that provides an affordable, social housing option looking to end chronic homelessness.

Currently, there are 39 residents. There are 106 housing units, split into 43 affordable units for individuals that need safe and stable housing and 63 units for those exiting homelessness with 24/7 on-site recovery oriented care.

The building offers spaces for dining, an Indigenous cultural room, programming/recreation, and can also accommodate up to 70 city employees through office spaces and meeting rooms.

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Indigenous Cultural Space

Melissa Lorenz, Housing Manager at Cedar Point with The Mustard Seed, says the residents have gone through many changes in the past few months.

“They are lovely, resilient folks. I think they are welcoming us as well. Even though it is a change we brought a lot of positive energy.”

Lorenz says many staff were kept as the exchange of operations was handed over to The Mustard Seed.

“We are working on really great recreational programming and building community here with the residents.”

She says the type of people that can apply to live at Cedar Point are single adults that could be living with mental, physical, or behavioral health conditions. She notes it is a permanent supportive housing program.

“It’s not a shelter. The folks live here; they have their own room, they pay rent. It’s their unit and their home.”

On the City of Grande Prairie’s website, it notes Cedar Point houses individuals that are selected from the Housing First program that require support due to mental, physical, or behavioral challenges. Residents are charged rent once deemed eligible to live at Cedar Point after taking part in three assessment tools to ensure the on-site supports match the needs of the resident.

Katie Kitschke, Senior Director of Affordable Housing and Property Management with The Mustard Seed, says the non-profit has had a warm welcome to Grande Prairie, unlike other communities where they’ve come in to help.

“We do have experience in running housing programs, so I think that was really appreciated by the city and community.”

Kitschke says the non-profits plan for success is to keep continuing to grow.

“More programs, looking for more community partners that can enhance what we are doing. We also want to enhance the volunteer opportunities, along with community engagement.”

She says the opportunities are endless for improving the programming they offer. Supports currently offered at Cedar Point includes the Northreach Society in-house for medical needs, a nurse practioner comes in weekly, mental health and addictions supports, and Native Counselling Services of Alberta hosts healing circles.

Kitschke says all of The Mustard Seed’s housing programs have no definite end date for residents to move out.

“This may be a stepping stone for some, but for others this may be so comfortable and so healing for them that they choose this is where they to spend the rest of their lives. So we don’t ever push anybody out and make them achieve goals that aren’t realistic for them.”

Lorenz quotes Johann Hari: “the opposite of addiction is connection”, which she believes is the purpose of the building.

“We are all about building community and supporting each other. Between the residents and the staff, we are all here to be supportive of each other.”

The Canadian Mental Health Association will start coming on site to teach life skills to residents starting in May.