A protest is planned at Confederation Building tomorrow to keep Horizons 106 open.
The provincial government last week awarded contracts to two organizations to provide supports in the community to people still living at the facility.
Stella’s Circle was awarded a three year contract, valued at $1.3-million annually, to provide moderate case management for 25 people, with at least five in-home support visits per week.
Bensaid Services, meanwhile, will provide intensive case management with a dedicated 24/7 staffed response for 20 people. That contract will cost government $2.2-million per year for the next three years.
Gracie Smith who has been living at Horizons 106 for the last two years told VOCM Open Line with Brian Callahan that she has been providing peer support for fellow residents.
Listen to “Gracie Smith” on Spreaker.
“I have gotten to know the residents on a personal level and I have watched the light come back on in people’s eyes as they exited the survival mode that they had to be in to live in the shelter system. And now to watch the fear in their eyes that all their hard work that they’ve put in over the last few years…it’s just all going to go away.”
Actor and advocate Mary Walsh who is organizing tomorrow’s protest is accusing government of callously “throwing…vulnerable people to the wolves on the 15th of December.”
Harbourview Apartments on Brazil Street (VOCM News)
Walsh sat on the Minister’s Committee on Mental Health and Addiction for years, and saw a lot of good intentions, but no concrete action taken.
She says the incident on Brazil Street is what prompted her to organize this week’s protest, watching drug dealers taking advantage of vulnerable people in a crumbling building.
Walsh is very concerned about what will happen once the facility shuts down, with people not willing to return to the shelter system.
Listen to “Mary Walsh” on Spreaker.
“Where are people going to go? Are they going to go to the emergency rooms? Is it actually going to cost more?”
