The Town of Smithers and the Smithers Partnering for Healthier Communities Committee will be hosting an open house to discuss the Town’s 3896 Railway Avenue supportive housing project.
Members of the public are invited to learn more about the project and to hear from Jaime Rogers from the Medicine Hat Community Housing Society where she will present what steps her city took to tackle its homelessness challenge,
In 2015, Medicine Hat declared it had ended its ‘chronic homelessness’ problem. If you have no place to go in the city, they will provide you with housing – no one in the city spends more than 10 days in an emergency shelter or on the streets.
The success of its program has the city dubbed “The first city in Canada to eliminate homelessness,” garnering interest from municipalities across the country looking to implement some of their strategies in their own communities.
The town has been trying to build a supportive housing complex at the corner of Queen and Railway since it bought it in 2015.
The event will take place Monday, January 9 at Town Hall. Drop-in is set to begin at 5:00 pm; presentation at 7:00 pm followed by a Q&A.