More Yaffa housing options

SUSAN KATZ

Jewish Vancouver's Yaffa Housing Society is one of the community partners who will be placing adults in need of supported housing into a new 51-unit residence to be built at 16th and Dunbar.

In June 2007, city council approved the Supportive Housing Strategy and included the site at Dunbar and 16th as a potential location for supportive housing. The city will be leasing the land and B.C. Housing and the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority have committed to providing funding for the daily operation, which will ensure staffing 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The building will be managed by Coast Foundation and, along with B.C. Housing and St. George's Place Housing Society, Yaffa will be placing residents in a total of 21 units. Coastal Health will be placing clients in the remaining 30 units.

The Yaffa Housing Society will be able to place at least five Jewish residents in this building and one unit will be wheelchair accessible. Yaffa has committed to providing up to $50,000 towards the addition of a dedicated kosher kitchen, for which it is currently seeking funding support. The new site will also host holiday celebrations, educational programs on topics of mental wellness and gatherings for residents and their families, as well as other members of the Jewish community, on a year-round basis.

The Yaffa Housing Society currently provides care, opportunity and support within the context of Jewish values and practice at a group home and centre for adults with mental illness, which opened in Vancouver in 2001. The intent of the society is to maximize the individual potential, growth, personal fulfilment and independence of its residents, as well as provide a centre within the Jewish community for mental health education, recreation and support.

Yaffa president Dr. Robert Huber said, "Yaffa is extremely pleased to be part of this very important project for our community. Our excellent past relationship with Coast has enabled this to happen. Hopefully, this Dunbar project will lead to more ventures like this to help this most vulnerable segment of our society."

Fred Dexall, who has been living at the existing house for seven years, said he is pleased that the new residence will be built, as it is "really needed, we're turning people away." He is also pleased that it will be on the Dunbar corridor, which means easy transit service for all residents with disabilities.

The new supportive housing project will provide a permanent residence for adults who are advanced enough in their personal health-care recovery goals to live semi-independently. This means they will have their own apartments – most for the first time ever – a small kitchen and, most importantly, a place of community.

The building itself will also include a dining room, meal program, lounging area, a patio and common rooms that tenants can book when family members visit.

Rob Whitlock, manager of the City of Vancouver Housing Centre, explained in the Hampton Journal that one-third to one-half of the tenants will be adults with mental health issues and the remaining will include individuals at core-need income levels; a priority will be given to individuals who live in, or have links to, the Dunbar, West Point Grey and Kitsilano communities.

Marge Johnson, a former resident of the Dunbar neighborhood who still owns an apartment nearby, attended the most recent community consultation for the project. She described the meeting as "cautiously optimistic" and is concerned that the attitude of the neighborhood can be "unfriendly at times" and that there is a "lynch-mob mentality of some of the neighbors."

Darrell Burnham, executive director of Coast Mental Health, which will manage the facility, said in a Vancouver Courier article that occupants will be asked to sign a crime-free addendum to the Residential Tenancy Act, agreeing that if they start causing problems in the community they could be evicted.

The Yaffa Housing Society (www.yaffahousing.ca) hopes to continue to provide more housing options and is always accepting donations and volunteers.

Susan Katz is a Vancouver freelance writer.

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