By: Kara Layher and Teresa Hiser
Kara Layher is a Communications Specialist at Calgary Homeless Foundation. Teresa Hiser is a Development Manager at Calgary Homeless Foundation. Both worked on the opening event for Prelude in Radisson Heights.
Last week, the Calgary homeless-serving community celebrated the opening of Prelude in Radisson Heights, a brand new permanent supportive housing development that will serve our city’s most vulnerable.
“Prelude represents more than just a home for 23 individuals experiencing homelessness. It represents hope and provides a stable place of belonging from which to build a better future.”, says Diana Krecsy, President and CEO, Calgary Homeless Foundation (CHF), “Collaboration between government, CHF, HomeSpace Society, local Calgary home builders and the RESOLVE Campaign is a true demonstration of the power of a collective impact approach. As we offer more permanent supportive housing to those who need it most, we continue to demonstrate that when we intentionally choose to work together, homelessness can end”.
The opening of Prelude represents the great things that happen when members of community come together to achieve a common goal. By working together to provide housing and supports to Calgarians who desperately need it, we are moving one step closer to ending homelessness in our city. Putting people into housing first provides the stability needed for a fresh start and the ability to focus on building a future, and it’s the key to success for individuals experiencing, or at risk of experiencing homelessness. The stability and supports that a building like Prelude provides to individuals allows them to focus on themselves – not their safety and security.
This new permanent supportive housing development was built by Shane Homes Ltd., and NUOVO by Shane Homes as a part of their ‘Visionary’ donation to CHF through the RESOLVE Campaign. The Alex Community Health Centre will provide client supports for the new residents, with HomeSpace Society as the property developer, owner and manager.
The Alex has already taken possession of the property and residents will move into Prelude June 1st.
A big thank you to Shane Homes and NUOVO by Shane Homes for their generous contribution to Calgary’s Homeless-Serving System of Care. We would also like to thank all of the donors and partners who made Prelude possible.
Developments like this are an incredible community accomplishment and a true representation of the power of collective impact. We have a reputation as a city that takes social crisis and turns it into solvable social solutions, and we must continue down that path. We have come so far, and we must continue to grow and work as much as we can, so that all Calgarians have a place to call home.
To meet its goals within Calgary’s Plan to End Homelessness, CHF is raising capital through RESOLVE to support its housing collaborator HomeSpace Society in a series of permanent supportive housing buildings for vulnerable Calgarians.
Find out more about the RESOLVE Campaign here.
Find out more about HomeSpace Society here.
Find out more about The Alex here.
Find out more about Shane Homes and NUOVO by Shane Homes here.
Find out more about Calgary Homeless Foundation here.
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