A group hoping to help the lives of the disadvantaged is working toward a fall re-opening of an aging former hotel on Macleod Trail.
The Calgary Dream Centre wants to assist homeless people referred by other agencies to become self-supporting through a residential program. To that end, rooms are being renovated and former bars and strip clubs turned into classrooms and conference space.
First the building, then the people: The Calgary Dream Centre bought the seven-storey hotel at 4510 Macleod Tr. S. in September of 2001. The hotel has 65 rooms and a paved parking lot with more than 200 stalls.
After permits and rezoning were in place, renovation work began this spring. Changes to the facilities will cost $3.2 million, says executive director Rob Crisp.
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| Shannon Oatway, Business Edge |
| Jim Moore, left, and Rob Crisp are helping shepherd the new Dream Centre. |
The dream centre idea didn’t originate in Calgary – there are 130 around North America, no two alike. “They fit the social climate of their communities,” says Crisp.
“Homelessness looks different in Toronto and Vancouver.”
The Calgary Dream Centre will be based on referrals, not a drop-in program, detox or a soup kitchen.
“It’s for individuals who have a strong desire to have change take place in their lives,” he says. The homeless have typically been stripped of their dignity, and the dream centre program aims to restore that dignity and help rebuild the dreams of participants within a year.
The program will include life management and career skills, with facilities including a commercial kitchen and 28 computers.
Jim Moore, director of finance and business development, says the Dream Centre renovation costs include $250,000 for the commercial kitchen and $3,600 per room. Sample room renovations show bright, clean and airy space, with dormitory-style bunk beds and room for study.
It will costs $3,600 per person per year for every Dream Centre client in the program.
Edmonton’s housing market is still going strong. Edmonton-area builders started 27 per cent more single-family homes in July than in the same month a year earlier, says the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
The capital’s census metropolitan area saw 739 new single-family houses started this year, compared to 581 in July 2002. On the multi-family side, 657 units were started in July, compared to 255 a year earlier.
The federal agency counts multi-family units, so a 10-suite apartment building is 10 starts, not one. Housing starts for the month in the Edmonton CMA thus totalled 1,396, up 67 per cent from 836 in July 2002.
The more-indicative seven-month figures show 3,821 single-family houses started, up 3.4 per cent from 3,697 last year. Multi-family units were off 8.2 per cent despite July’s strong showing, at 2,993 this year compared to 3,259 last year.
The total starts for the first seven months were only off a record pace by about two per cent, down to 6,814 from 6,956.
In the Stampede City, builders started 741 single-family houses, up 2.1 per cent from 726 in 2002. They started building 389 multi-family units this year, compared to 139 a year earlier. The total for the month is 1,130, an increase of 31 per cent from 865 in 2002, with the rise attributable to the multi-family side of the industry.
For the year so far, the Calgary area has seen 5,107 single-family starts, off five per cent from 5,374 in the first seven months of 2002. Multi-family construction is up 47.5 per cent to 3,489 from 2,365 in 2002. The total for the first seven months is 8,596 units, an 11-per-cent increase from 7,739 for the same period last year.
The housing market has been performing well in Alberta for the last few years and will hopefully move to a sustainable level. It doesn’t have to reach 2002 levels to be a good market, noted Vinay Bhardwaj, Prairie regional economist for the CMHC.
Low interest on mortgages and Alberta’s strong economy are continuing to attract new arrivals. People already in Alberta are enjoying the kind of full-time jobs necessary for housing purchases.
Internal migration will taper off as B.C.’s economy picks up, predicted Bhardwaj. Canadians have traditionally looked to Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario for new jobs, and Alberta will face competition for internal migrants, he added.
Building permits issued in Calgary in July were down 34 per cent from the same month last year, according to city hall figures.
The city sold 1,528 permits worth $159.4 million, compared to 1,719 perm its worth $241.4 million in July of 2002. Residential permits were down 36 per cent to $111.2 million from $172.5 million.
Single family permits amounted to $86 million of the residential figure, down nine per cent from $94.2 million last year.
Non-residential permits dropped 30 per cent to $48.2 million last month, compared to $68.8 million a year earlier.
Building permits for the year have totalled $1.52 billion, up eight per cent from $1.41 billion in the first seven months of 2002.
The city notes that building permits register intentions in the construction industry, not actual construction starts.
Sturgess Architecture of Calgary has been named to design the Lakeland Interpretive Centre in Lac La Biche, northeast of Edmonton.
The $4-million, 34,000-sq.-ft. will include museum exhibits, conference centre, banquet facilities and community centre.
