Home supports residents
A $9-million transitional building on Brown Avenue was officially opened on Wednesday
MLA Marc Dalton, Maple Ridge Mayor Ernie Daykin, resident Shelby Milburn, and Sheila McLaughlin and Darryl Lucas of Alouette Home Start Society officially opened Alouette Heights on Brown Avenue.
Photograph by: Sylver McLaren , TIMES
It took about nine years from an initial idea to when the doors were opened and residents could move into second-stage housing in Maple Ridge.
Alouette Heights at 222nd Street and Brown Avenue was officially opened on Wednesday afternoon with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The project was first conceived almost a decade ago when the community homelessness task force recognized a need for a place where people could go to get back on their feet and transition to stable, permanent housing, according to Alouette Home Start Society's past president Sheila McLaughlin.
There was no place to go to in the community when people left emergency shelters like the Caring Place and Cythera Transition House.
Alouette Heights is a place where people come to get support and retrain so they can get their lives back together, McLaughlin said.
"They just want a place to call home," she said.
Alouette Heights was built with $8 million from the provincial government. The District of Maple Ridge donated the land, valued at about $1 million.
Residents started moving into the 45 apartments this summer and will typically live there from six months to two years. There is round-the-clock support for the residents.
