The Elizabeth Fry Society is pursuing plans to provide independent housing and daycare services in New Westminster.
The non-profit society has applied to the city for an amendment to the official community plan to change the designation of 273 and 275 Sherbrooke St. from residential low-density to major institutional. Its hope is to construct a building next to its current site that would include office space for the non-profit society, a licensed child-care centre and non-market housing for women.
"My message is: I believe that setting aside space in the community for institutional space in the OCP is good. It sets it aside for the public good. EFry has tried to be a good neighbour, we have tried to listen to the things people have to say and respond," said Shawn Bayes, the society's executive director. "We try to be a good community citizen. I don't believe we are a risk."
Bayes noted that Sapperton has a long history of accommodating institutional uses, including Woodlands School, the B.C. Penitentiary and Royal Columbian Hospital.
"It's a community that has always been inclusive, that has had large projects here, whether that was in institutions or businesses," she said. "So I think EFry fits in."
Founded in New Westminster in 1939, the Elizabeth Fry Society moved into its current building at 402 East Columbia St. in 1996. The building now accommodates the society's administration staff, nine semiindependent suites for women, a halfway house for women released from prison, a shelter for homeless women, a drop-in program for women and children, Small Fry's Boutique (a room where women can shop for gifts using credits received from the society) and a reception area that also doubles as the location of "third party administration" services.
Some neighbours have voiced concerns about the clients who get their social assistance cheques through the third party administration at EFry, the only program offered at the site that's also open to male clients.
According to Bayes, 17 people come to the society's building biweekly or weekly to get their social assistance cheques.
"The people who we take are people who are referred to us because they are determined to be outside the service ability of a government office," she said. "That means they are people who phone a lot, they may be people who are difficult to deal with - absolutely there are people who like to yell. If their needs are assessed to be greater than that, and that's from the spec-trum of everything, then they are referred to third-party administration."
Bayes said the biggest reason people are sent to third-party administration is because they have trouble managing their $510 or $535 a month cheques, and become frustrated when they run out of food or money before receiving their next month's cheque.
The society helps people set up a budget, figure out how they can get into stable housing, get ID and open bank accounts so they can move on and get their cheque mailed to them.
"TPA is not moving next door. It stays here," Bayes said of the existing office. "The people who are moving are us - administration. The programs are not moving next door. The programs we have, like thirdparty administration, we have run third-party administration since 2002. It's nothing new. It's not that there are more people coming here - there are not."
The proposed $5-to $8-million, fourstorey project would provide space for 10 units of independent, long-term housing for women and women with children, a 37-space child-care centre, a multipurpose space, a lobby between the two parts of the building, office space for the society's administration staff and 23 underground parking spaces.
The proposed development would be built on a property that is currently home to a parking lot used by the Elizabeth Fry Society and a house that served as a drug recovery home for 15 men for many years. By relocating the administration offices to the new building, the society would free up the first floor space in the existing building and once again be able to rent that space out to underwrite the costs of some of the services it offers.
In addition to increased administration space, Bayes said the society has identified a "real need" for affordable housing for women in New Westminster. Unlike the semi-independent housing units in the existing building that have shared washrooms, the single women or women with children living in the 10 units of long-term independent housing would have their own bathrooms.
"We want long-term housing," Bayes said. "Here, you can only live here for 18 months. As kids grow, really if you are over three it is hard to be here. Kids need to run. There's not enough space."
Bayes doesn't feel that residents have anything to fear from the clients accessing any of its programs, noting he's cognizant of the need to protect the women, children and staff who are living or working in the building as well.
Some neighbours have voiced concern about the number of police calls to the building at 402 East Columbia St.
"The police report showed we do have calls to EFry. We phone the police to come," Bayes said. "We have a halfway house here. If you are five minutes late home, we report you to what's called the duty officer. A Canada-wide warrant is issued for your arrest. We have 12 women living here. - If you come home, then what usually happens is they stay here till the morning and then they speak to their parole office and they are usually sent back to jail."
According to Bayes, the society's staff will call police to take those individuals back to jail.
"When you live on conditional release in a halfway house, which is here, you live under tremendous scrutiny and a very, very limited tolerance for any leeway in the condition of your ability to be here," she said. "Of that police report, it said that there were 40 calls roughly a year, and 25 of those were related to a breach of parole. That's where they come and take you away. We do call people under the Mental Health act. I think there were a couple of calls under that designation. That is if we are concerned about people. It is possible you can be suicidal or be concerned about your well-being. We are a social service organization, but clearly we work closely with all community organizations. We ask help of the police if we need it."
A New Westminster Police Service report about calls for the Elizabeth Fry Society building stated that the police have not "had any extraordinary policing experiences" at the location in the past five years and don't believe the building has required an "excessive response" from the police service.
