The former executive director of Stella’s Circle says the key to housing people with complex mental health needs is safety, security and the ability to be alone when necessary.
Advocates say some current residents of Horizons 106, which is slated for closure in December, vow they won’t be going back into the shelter system and would rather live in encampments.
A room at Horizons 106
A protest to keep the facility open is taking place at Confederation Building this afternoon.
Jocelyn Greene, who has nearly 40 years of experience in housing people with complex mental health needs, told VOCM Open Line with Brian Callahan that people she’s worked with often required a place where they can be alone.
She also happens to have a family member living at Horizons 106.
She cited one former resident with bipolar disorder.
“She used to come in and say ‘I need to be alone, but I can’t be alone.’ What that meant was providing the kind of housing where there was support on-site, but they could still go in, shut their door, have their own bathroom, and be safe. And that is what we built most of our housing on.”
Listen to “Jocelyn Greene, former Executive Director of Stella’s Circle” on Spreaker.
Greene says housing people with complex mental health needs in an apartment without supports is very difficult. She says she contacted government officials as soon as she learned what government was planning to do and was assured that a plan was in place.
She says simply providing visits in the community won’t work for everyone.
“That will work for some people” says Greene, “but there’s a number of individuals…the 40 or so still left there, they’re still left there Brian because they haven’t been able to find a place that provides that kind of 24-hour support.”
She says what she’s hearing is that “intensive case management” has been given to a private operator (Bensaid Services) who she says has purchased a private care home to house two people per bedroom. “That is not acceptable.”
