Feb 2024 – BVRH Bulletin – Large format NEWS, INITIATIVES, AND EVENTS
Designated Supportive Living (DSL) Operations
We are celebrating our 1st anniversary of DSL operations!! The
program houses and cares for thirty of the region’s most vulnerable
people. We are proud of the achievements and maturing operations
borne of our partnership with SE Health. Unfortunately, our celebration
is tempered by the ongoing challenges that are delaying the opening of
the secure unit in the still-new wing.
The facility delivers publicly funded DSL care to the region and helps
keep seniors close to their loved ones and support in the community
longer. The first floor will be operated as a secure dementia wing, once
our partners are able to stabilize their staffing model, which is difficult
due to the very tight labour and housing markets here in the Bow
Valley region. We continue to work with SE Health on recruitment and
retention strategies, including a collaboration on employee housing that
officially opens to staff on March 1, 2024!
BVRH Employee Housing
We started to offer a small amount of housing to staff over the last few
years and are excited to announce that we will expand the program in
2024 with housing on the Bow River Lodge site and a future house
purchase off site. The very tight labour market, along with high costs of
housing faced by our employees and the fact that we must maintain
critical staffing levels to serve our vulnerable residents requires us to
remain able to compete for qualified workers. At the same time, our
vision statement and one of strategic goals seek to improve supports,
including some housing options, for our employees, because we are an
employer of excellence!
PROGRAM OCCUPANCY RATES
Bow River Lodge – NSL 93%
Bow River Lodge – DSL 45%
Cascade House 79%
Bow River Homes 100%
Mount Edith House 100%
Community Housing 100%
Rent Supplement 100%
SPECIAL PROJECTS
This is Home (Phase 3+)
Considering stubborn uncertainty in the interest rate markets, rising
construction costs and challenges aligning GOA and CMHC funding,
we will submit our project proposal to Alberta Seniors, Community,
and Social Supports in 2024. This will allow us to develop greater
certainty toward future capital and operational sustainability.
These projects, if approved, will refresh much of our Community and
Seniors’ Independent Housing stock while adding different types and
affordability levels of housing to the region in Canmore and perhaps
elsewhere. We hope that the GOA will appreciate and be able to
approve the opportunity here and that we will be able to collaborate
with them, the Town of Canmore, and ideally other Housing Agencies
to address some of the housing crisis in the Bow Valley.
RESOURCES
• If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, please call 911.
• For 24/7 nurse advice and general health information for Albertans
information on diseases, treatments, staying well, and healthcare services
dial 811.
• For 24/7 community program & service information, including
affordability programming in the Bow Valley dial 211.
• If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, call or text 988.
ABOUT BOW VALLEY REGIONAL HOUSING
Bow Valley Regional Housing (BVRH) is a Housing Management
Body (HMB) serving the Government of Alberta and the Bow
Valley Region. HMB operational funding sources vary. Tenants pay
accommodation fees. Those fees are subject to affordability limits,
which prevent them from fully covering the costs of operations.
Provincial grants and municipal ratepayer requisitions subsidize
seniors lodge deficits, while the province also subsidizes deficits in
independent seniors and community housing.
As the HMB for the Bow Valley region, BVRH is responsible for
social housing, as well as affordable supportive living
accommodation for seniors throughout Kananaskis Country, the
Bow Corridor, the MD of Bighorn, and all of Banff National Park,
an area covering about 13,500 square kilometers.
All told, we currently house, or help to house approximately 500
residents of the Bow Valley in eight permanent housing projects
encompassing 33 separate buildings.
More information is available on our website at www.bvrh.
