A New Start for Homeless Men – and Their Shelter

The Brock Mission in Peterborough, Ontario, was running its shelter for homeless men in an old, expensive, and unsafe building. After an initial redesign fell through, the Mission secured support from the National Housing Co-Investment Fund. The organization also got financial and human-resource help from the City of Peterborough. These supports were used to replace the building with a combined shelter and transitional housing, as well as space for services.

Project scope and expected outcomes

For 30 years, the Brock Mission has provided emergency shelter for men and women experiencing homelessness – with cases often complicated by addictions, mental illness and trauma. Some need a safe place to stay until they are back on their feet. Others are chronically homeless and need more advanced supports before they can start over.

But it took some time for “the Brock” to recognize that it, too, needed to start afresh. The small organization didn’t have the financial stability to make the change. A new shelter on Peterborough’s Murray Street shows that the organization has renewed itself, but it was a long journey.

Peterborough reckons with homelessness

Dorothy Olver, the City of Peterborough’s Homelessness Program Manager, describes the city’s homelessness situation as complex: “Our shelters started to see an increase in volume in 2016 and our numbers have never really gone back down. Given the disparity between income levels of people experiencing homelessness, rent rates in our community plus a vacancy rate around 2%, it is extremely challenging to find safe, affordable housing for people.”

Bill McNabb, Executive Director of the Brock Mission, concurs: “Housing prices in Peterborough have gone up in recent years, partly because of the influence of the Greater Toronto Area nearby. Even affordable housing is not that affordable.” He notes that, while Brock Mission also operates Cameron House, a shelter for women, men are sometimes overlooked. “Most studies show that at least two thirds of the homeless are male, but there are not a lot of supports available specifically to address adult male homelessness.”

The City has a goal of ending chronic homelessness by the end of 2025, says Dorothy, noting that, for those experiencing chronic homelessness and high levels of need, the best solution is permanent supportive housing.

Putting a Mission on hold

The Mission’s first attempt to expand its space in 2010 ran into serious financial difficulties. It secured an old 18,000-square foot-building on Murray Street. The building was originally a church and had later been used by the local Royal Canadian Legion branch. Over the decades, the original hall had seen many additions.

The building soon ran into problems: “It was understood that we’d need to renovate, but we didn’t know how much would be required,” says Bill. “It wasn’t built for the purposes of a shelter, and a lot of it wasn’t built to code. Once you got into the core of the building, from the 1800s, you just don’t know what you’ll run into.” The building was expensive to heat and costs to make it safe were mounting.

In 2014, with support from the City, the Mission undertook a feasibility study that determined that the building would require more maintenance over the long term than the cost of a full rebuild. The Mission moved its services for homeless men to a nearby temporary site – another old church – and demolished the Murray Street building in 2017.

But that was not the end of the Mission’s financial woes, as costs for the first set of plans for a new building skyrocketed – nearly doubling because of the increase in prices in the early 2010s. Construction was delayed and the City put the project on hold.

“Getting turned down by the City was the worst moment in this process,” says Bill. “After one and a half years of intensive work, we thought it was coming true. But getting turned down was ultimately a good thing.” Brock Mission worked with its architect to reimagine the new space. The result was a design with half the basement removed and separate kitchen and dining facilities from the rest of the building. Construction costs were reduced by almost half, but it was still several million dollars over budget.

Support from the federal and municipal governments

In 2018, the Government of Canada launched the National Housing Co-Investment Fund as part of its National Housing Strategy.

Recognizing that a small organization such as the Mission did not have the resources or expertise needed to do a large grant application, the City seconded staff to help. “Without that support, we simply wouldn’t have made it through the process,” says Bill. “And it could’ve been as serious as closing our doors if we didn’t get the funding.”

CMHC approved the Mission’s Co-Investment Fund application in 2018. Support through the program was through a forgivable loan of $2 million and a low-cost loan of $3.02 million. Together, financing through the Fund covered about half of the project costs.

The City is also supporting the project directly, with a contribution of $1.25 million – as well as in-kind contributions such as waiving development charges and building-permit fees. The waived fees, along with the City’s project-management costs, amounted to about $725,000 in savings.

The community takes an interest

The Mission still needed to cover more costs, and set out to raise $2 million through a fundraising campaign. But some spontaneous fundraising was already underway. “It’s amazing how many people and organizations, including government, came together at the same time to help us through it in a tangible way,” says Bill. He points to a $1-million bequest left by a private donor and an unsolicited cheque from a local church for several thousand dollars. “One local business called to ask if there was anything they could contribute now. They didn’t have much money, but we said we needed bins for the guys to store things in the shelter. And that’s what the business provided.”

As of early 2021, the fundraising campaign had raised 75% of its goal.

The community support was not just evident in the numbers. “We went through notifying everyone in the community within the required 100-metre radius, and we were surprised by the positivity. People were thrilled that we were doing this. When it came time for an opportunity to bring people in and ask questions about the project, we got no opposition. I hope that’s a reflection on how we’ve tried to operate over the years.”

The building and its services

Construction began in June 2019 and the new building is expected to open mid-summer of 2021. The attractive modern 3-storey building is in the heart of Peterborough – nestled between a mixed residential and commercial area and the spacious Victoria Park. It will feature 30 shelter beds, but also 15 single room occupancy units – aimed at helping chronically homeless men and those with the greatest needs move toward more permanent solutions. Each of these units has a combined bedroom and sitting room, kitchenette and bathroom. As Brock Mission is the owner of the property, it will also act as landlord, requiring a nominal rent proportional to the resident’s assistance.

The housing units are on the upstairs floors and the ground floor has common spaces. These include a dining hall where hundreds of meals will be served each day. It will also have individual meeting places for both residents and visitors to meet with councillors and service providers. Dorothy describes this as the most distinctive part of the Brock: “This sort of support and program can be life-altering for people who have been experiencing homelessness for a long time and provide dignity and a sense of ‘home’.”

One of these service providers, for example, is the Four Counties Addiction Services Team (FourCAST), which does a lot of clinical work with the same population served by the Brock. “Being onsite makes it easier to do a ‘warm hand-off’ – if they’re already here, the client has more comfort level with a service provider,” says Bill. Trust is important.

Throughout, the building is designed to maximize natural light, which Bill says is vital to combatting the depression that commonly afflicts the homeless. The architect, Lett Architects Inc., also ensured that the building would meet the National Housing Co-Investment Fund’s energy efficiency targets. Building for energy efficiency will also help to lower the Mission’s energy bills. Moreover, the building is purpose-built for transitional housing: robust construction and durable fixtures and finishes will also lower maintenance costs.

Learning from the long build

After reopening, the City will continue to support Brock Mission: about $1 million per year goes toward programs at the Brock, as well as at Cameron House for women. The City also secured a commitment for about $200,000 per year from the Government of Ontario’s Home for Good program. This program will finance the various supports that will be provided in the new building. The Brock project will be one of the City’s first permanent Housing First sites.

The road to reopening the Brock has been long, but Bill says that there were some valuable lessons along the way. Housing services tend to be frugal when it comes to new projects. That is a mistake, he says. “Don’t go cheap – do it right from the beginning. It cost a lot to get the feasibility study done, but it anchored what we were going to do. That investment from 10 years ago is still paying off.” He also says that, while partnerships are essential, they have to fit with the core identity of the organization. “A partnership was suggested to us early in the process that would involve a completely different philosophy in how we work.”

Erica Arkell, the Financial Analyst with the City who worked on the project from the beginning, cautions housing organizations to “understand their budget and schedule early in the process, and ensure that the project budget incorporates a realistic contingency. A clear budget and schedule will galvanize all partners to successfully cross the finish line – so, hire professionals (project manager, architect, general contractor) who are committed to sticking to them.”