THUNDER BAY – A non-profit that supports access to health services for Indigenous peoples in Thunder Bay has gotten a boost in its bid to double the size of its Balmoral Street facility.
City council voted unanimously to support a new building proposed by Wequedong Lodge that would offer rent-geared-to-income housing and temporary accommodations for those seeking medical care Monday, contributing $108,000 to the project.
The funds are contingent on the organization’s success in securing other outside funding for the planned 60,000 square foot building, roughly estimated to cost $15 to $25 million.
Wequedong Lodge executive director Donna Kroocmo said the city funds will be used for site development on a patch of land adjacent to its Balmoral Street location, where it currently offers 51 rooms with a total of 110 beds.
An agreement to purchase the land for the new building from Community Living Thunder Bay is in its final stages, she said, and would allow the construction of a playground.
Kroocmo’s organization provides accommodations, meals, translation, transportation and referral services to First Nations, Metis, and Inuit clients accessing medical care in Thunder Bay. It serves about 150 people a day.
Demand for its services is so high that Wequedong Lodge sometimes places as many clients in local hotels as it’s able to accommodate itself, Kroocmo reported.
“We have clients that are staying in a hotel room for up to two years sometimes, because they come to the city for medical reasons, find out once they get here that they need to relocate to the city and need their own apartment,” she said.
Plans for the new building could proceed quickly, if the organization is successful in securing federal funding. Rapid housing funding it’s seeking through the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) would require a build to start by April of 2021 and welcome occupants by March of 2022, Kroocmo said.
