Youth Housing Hub Fills a Community Need in Ottawa

What used to be a detention facility has become a way for young people to learn how to escape homelessness. The Youth Housing Hub provides housing for at-risk young people, aged 16 to 25, as well as much-needed services and connections to the community. A range of contributions made the project possible. These include charitable contributions, a grant from the City of Ottawa and a loan through the National Housing Co-Investment Fund.

Project scope and expected outcomes

What used to be a detention facility has become a way for young people to learn how to escape – that is, to escape homelessness.

In October 2019, the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa (YSB) opened its new Youth Housing Hub on Riverside Drive. This attractive building in an idyllic setting has 39 units to house at-risk young people, aged 16 to 25, and provide them with much-needed services and connections to the community.

The Youth Housing Hub was made possible through many charitable contributions. These include a grant from the City of Ottawa and a loan through the National Housing Co-Investment Fund.

A persistent need for affordable youth housing

Since 1960, YSB has helped young people in Ottawa to overcome barriers and establish themselves within the community. YSB provides services related to the youth justice system, employment, mental health and housing. YSB has housed about 11,000 people over the past 6 years.

To help young people find safe and affordable housing and transition to market housing, YSB has a portfolio of properties across Ottawa. By the early 2000s, their portfolio included 3 apartment buildings, for which there was always a long waiting list.

So YSB began to explore opening another building. As part of its justice services, it operated a low-security detention facility on Ottawa’s Riverside Drive. Consolidating this with another location would generate cost savings, since many of the services could be combined – and it would free up the Riverside property for new development.

Many players come together

In 2016, YSB was awarded a $5-million capital grant from Action Ottawa, which combines federal and provincial funding for affordable housing. As part of the Action Ottawa agreement, the City also waived development fees.

However, the project’s capital budget was $10 million. “With the funding model we’d pitched, half would come through Action Ottawa, 30% through investment and 20% through charitable fundraising” says Wes Richardson, YSB’s Director of Finance. “So our foundation developed a capital campaign.”

This began with contributions raised by the Ottawa Senators Foundation, the Bell Let’s Talk campaign, Do it for Daron (DIFD) and the Danbe Foundation, together raising $500,000. This served as a foundation for YSB’s Families First campaign, which asked for donations of $25,000 to sponsor a unit within the building. Many families responded, but also private enterprise and charitable organizations: the Home Depot Canada Foundation, the Kiwanis Club of Ottawa, the HOPE Foundation, the Taggart Parkes Foundation, the Canyon Fund, KPMG, Kaleidoscope of Hope Gala, Urbandale Corporation and the Joan of Arc Academy.

Several companies brought their unique skills and connections into play:

• The Tomlinson Group of Companies, an Ottawa-area construction company, demolished the old building on the site at no charge, saving YSB about $50,000.
• McDonald Brothers Construction led construction and organized a barbecue for all the tradespeople working on the project, raising about $85,000.
• Jennifer McGahan Interiors provided interior design work, pro bono, saving the project about $30,000.

The National Housing Co-Investment Fund

Still, about $3 million had yet to be raised through investment. “We didn’t actually consider CMHC until we’d finished the design and were about to start construction. We put out an RFQ (request for quotations) for financing and got quotations from several banking institutions and from CMHC,” Wes explains.

CMHC provided financing through the National Housing Co-Investment Fund, which is part of the Government of Canada’s National Housing Strategy. Administered by CMHC, the Fund develops and revitalizes affordable housing near supports and amenities such as public transit, daycares and healthcare.

For YSB, this meant a $3.125 million loan. “It works a lot like a mortgage from a bank,” says Wes, “but it was attractive because of the lower interest rate. The condition is that it must be designated affordable housing. We report back annually to CMHC on the tenants’ levels of income, moves in and out and demographics.” Not only did the National Housing Co-Investment Fund help close the gap in the Hub’s budget, it also helps with its long-term affordability, says Wes. “Our biggest ongoing cost is our mortgage payment, and the CMHC program is saving us about $40,000 per year.”

Affordable and supportive apartment living

Construction began in June 2018 and was completed the next September. The end result is an attractive, four-storey, slab-on-grade building with a modern profile:

• The ground floor hosts the Hub, which includes offices for YSB’s case managers, who are funded through the City of Ottawa and assigned to individual tenants. The Hub also has space for some of YSB’s mental-health counselling team, as well as meeting rooms for outside service providers.
• Common areas on the first floor include a kitchen, an activity room, a lounge, a laundry room and garbage room, as well as storage space.
• The upper floors include 33 bachelor units, as well as 6 two-bedroom units geared to single parents. The bachelor units are designed with a lot of built-in storage space, to minimize the need for residents to buy anything new. There is storage under the bed, for example, and a pull-out table in the kitchen space. For safety, the stove is equipped with smart burners that shut off if a certain temperature is reached.
• The building meets the universal-design standard; nine of the units are barrier-free.

Another safety feature is the concrete flooring, which not only acts as a firestop, but also reduces the need for replacing flooring between move-outs, and can contain outbreaks of pests. But wood-frame construction in the upper units also makes the building more affordable.

The tenants pay rent, but it’s generally made affordable through municipal or provincial programs, which also help keep the operational budget viable. “Prospective tenants sign a lease, as with any other landlord,” says Wes. “Many are on Ontario Works, so they get a housing allowance, which goes to us as the landlord.” These residents pay $384 per month, against an Ottawa average of $1,100 for a similar apartment unit. He adds that there are provincial rent supplements for one third of the units, which are designed to provide top-ups to landlords, with the youth still only paying $384 per month. The rent covers heat, electricity, water and air conditioning.

The tenants can stay so long as they continue to pay rent. However, as Wes puts it, “We’re trying to stabilize you in your work and education. If that’s accomplished after a few years, we encourage you to move on, so we can bring another young person in.” He notes that some of the programs expire when the residents become fully employed or reach a certain age. When this happens, their rent changes from affordable to near market rents. “We try to keep the connection after they move out,” says Wes. “If they still need assistance that we can’t provide, we can link them to other service providers in the community.”

Learning for future projects

Wes says that opening the Youth Housing Hub was a deeply rewarding experience – in part because of obstacles along the way:

• The successful bid to Action Ottawa was not YSB’s first: an original bid involved estimates by an external company that were found to be about 60% over budget, which effectively sank the bid and delayed the project by a year. YSB redesigned the building from a C-shape to a single block and eliminated a proposed underground parking garage. The redesign paid off, though, Wes says: “It was on time and under budget, which was very satisfying, because that rarely happens.”
• There was also a hold-up during the demolition of the old building, as suspicions arose that there was asbestos in the walls. Testing revealed this to be untrue, but it did delay the project.
• Wes also notes that, while YSB consulted with youth clients on the project, “… we really should have engaged more youth in the design. They have valuable opinions on the placement of things in the building – where the garbage room is, the size of the laundry room, storage for bikes, how the apartments are laid out.” As an example, he notes that providing twin-sized beds with storage underneath worked well for most tenants, but “if you’re 6-foot-5, the space is tight.”

Yet the Youth Housing Hub also draws on lessons from YSB’s past projects. Not least is the fact that it is much larger than YSB’s other properties. “We took a leap here, because housing that many youth under one roof can become unmanageable,” says Wes. “What helps is that we have the case managers tied to each tenant, making sure that they maintain their independent living.”