The ground has been broken for a new 20-unit transitional housing unit in Midland.

Named Shelter Now, the complex is meant to fill a much-needed housing gap for individuals looking to stabilize their lives.

“It’s not emergency housing … it fills in the little transition for those who have just left housing or had an unfortunate incident in life, so they need a place to put their life back together for a couple of years before they move into more regular affordable housing,” says Gord McKay, a former board member of Shelter Now.

This is phase one of the project, which will include small modified one-bedrooms, bachellorettes and a few two bedroom apartments, as well office space for social service providers on site.

“It’s not just about providing the units,” says Sharon Lapham, housing coordinator at the Mental Health Center and president of the North Simcoe Emergency/Transitional Residential Projects Incorporated.

“Transitional units are really about providing the interim level of housing that gives people some stability and allows them to have one place they can stay at as low of rent as we can afford to charge them.”

The beauty of the whole thing, says McKay, is that the people with the social needs and the agencies that support them will now all be in the same building.

According to McKay, the initiative first started with the North Simcoe Catholic Family Life Centre, which he says had been trying to get a project like this done for the better part of a decade.

“It has really caught fire in last little while,” he says, adding the major push came after a private donor – the Weber Foundation, (along with a donation from the late Robert Hartog) – essentially stepped up to the plate and paid for the entire facility. Once the funding was established, the group quickly selected land on Hartman Drive, and brought the plans to the town for approval.

“The town has reacted very quickly in putting it through … an excavator is digging now.”

Both Lapham and McKay agree the need for this type of affordable housing has been a long time coming and is much needed.

Midland and area have a high need for affordable housing – all the way from emergency shelter to below market rent housing, says McKay.

“One of the needs is this transitional housing, and even though we do have it on supply, the demand here is great. We are short approximately 200 housing units in this area,” he says. “These have to be provided somewhere, and unfortunately, we were not successful with (any of the) provincial programs so this is the best thing that’s come along in the area for some time.”

Lapham says despite what many people may believe, Midland and area does in fact have a homeless issue. “People traditionally think of place like Toronto where you visibly have people lying on the street. No one questions the issue of homelessness (there), but it’s a problem no matter where you are,” she says.

The project, anticipated to cost $3.5 million, is expected to be complete in early 2009, and is a positive step forward, they say.

“It’s going to be a keystone for what’s needed in this community,” says McKay. “That’s not to say we’ve resolved everything with it, but it’s a very good brick to have in the wall.”