By Andrew de Souza

Committee approves YWCA group home

May 25, 2011 | 11:51 AM

The city’s executive committee recommends city council approve a proposed YWCA group home for single mothers in the West Hill.

The YWCA is applying for a permit to turn the Hillcrest Inn Bed & Breakfast on 20th Street West into a group home for about five single mothers and their babies.

It’s a niche service badly needed in the community, said YWCA Manager Donna Brooks.

“There’s a lot of young moms that don’t have a safe place to stay, that don’t have a safe place to raise their babies, they don’t have the mentorship in place to help them do that and so that’s why we’re trying to fill that gap,” she said.

“There’s a wait list of girls that need a safe place to go that aren’t in a safe place right now.”

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She said the facility will house mothers between the ages of 16 and 21 and will have 24-hour staffing.
Brooks said at first blush, the neighbours might be concerned but they don’t have to be.

“The neighbours need not to fear anything because there’d be no riff-raff,” she said.

“The young moms that go into the home are mothers that want to be there, that want to better their lives and want what’s best for their babies.”

The committee approved the recommendation on Tuesday.

However there are already a number of concerns raised by those in the neighbourhood.

The two major concerns raised were the process the city has to notify neighbours and also how the facility would affect the quality of life in on the street.

In regards to the process, several people claimed they had never received a letter from the city regarding the proposal and also that there was too short a time to raise an objection.

In terms of how the facility would affect the neighbourhood, residents said they were provided with too little information about what the facility would be like and that was unfair.

“An address to many of these concerns should come from the YWCA itself in an open and full round of community consultation, advertised and solicited by them, giving the neighbourhood time to pose its questions directly to the agency, face-to-face and giving adequate time following to deliberate on their response,” wrote Darcy Blahut and Leslie Kudel in a letter to council.

During Tuesday’s executive committee meeting, councillors said the project should go ahead but that in the future the city needs to do a better job of informing the public.

Coun. Cheryl Ring said she wanted the city to be more specific in its letters to residents.

“I am in support of this project but we should give more information in the initial mailing to the residents about the intended use,” she said.

“I know in all cases that isn’t going to make things better because people aren’t necessarily going to be supportive of intended use, but in this case I think we could have thwarted some of the upset.”

She also said the facility should have to reapply to council should it ever want to change its use, which was a concern raised by residents.

The committee approved the recommendation to approve the building permit.

The sale of the property is conditional on, among other things, the approval of the permit.

adesouza@panow.com