New seniors housing initiative created in RM of Springfield
by by GREG VANDERMEULEN
The creation of Springfield Heritage Housing Inc. will help get shovels in the ground sooner on Dugald Place, and will help ensure future development of senior housing in the municipality.
The new community not-for-profit announced Tuesday, represents a partnership between the RM of Springfield, the existing Dugald Place Housing Cooperative and the Springfield Seniors Non-Profit Housing Co-op.
Dugald Place Housing Cooperative will be desolved, with deposits being refunded or transferred to the new entity.
Lesley Thomson is the chair of the new board. She played a key role in the success of the Dugald Estates project,(a 47 suite independent living facility opened five years ago) and has been integral in developing the proposed Dugald Place (an approximately 50 suite assisted living facility).
The six person board includes three members of the RM of Springfield council and three community members. In addition to chair Lesley Thomson, the board includes Mayor Tiffany Fell, Coun. Peter Williams, Coun. Glen Fuhl, Beverly Zarazun (co- chair of Dugald Place Housing Coop) and Randy Williams (current chair of the Springfield Seniors Housing Co-op).
Thomson the municipality has always been supportive of the project, providing land and waiving development fees, but the new organization formalizes that support.
“I think there was a recognition on the part of the municipality that there’s significant economic benefits for a project like this,” she said.
Thomson said the new entity creates greater long term sustainability and accountability for the project.
“We have a greater opportunity to get financing through the municipality as opposed to a non-profit volunteer group that doesn’t have deep pockets like a developer does,” she said. “We’re pretty excited about it.”
Under the cooperative model, residents had to buy-in. Dugald Estates cost members $90,000, while Dugald Place was expected to cost $38,000. Residents would get that money back when they moved out.
But Thomson said they would also have to pay rent and a monthly service package.
The new group will launch a fundraising campaign to generate that income instead.
“We want this project to be as accessible as it can be for all seniors in the community,” she said.
This image of the proposed Dugald Place was made in August, 2019. VERNE REIMER ARCHITECTURE
Exactly what will need to be raised is still unknown, and Thomson said they have engaged the services of a professional fund raising group.
Thomson said the new group marks the continuation of working well with the RM.
“I have to give a lot of credit to the vision and the support of the RM of Springfield,” she said.
It’s also just the beginning of an aging in place strategy that will continue long after Dugald Place is built.
“The idea is not just to create Dugald Place,” she said. “I do believe they have a vision for wanting to ensure there is quality seniors housing in all communities in the RM of Springfield.
Mayor Tiffany Fell also referred to future goals.
“Our seniors are the backbone of our community and our goal is to keep them near their families and their social networks where they want to be as they grow older,” Fell said. “We are starting with Dugald Place since the project is so advanced, but this social enterprise model gives us the potential to branch out to our other Springfield communities in the future.”
Fell said they’ve seen this model work well in other communities in Manitoba.
“We want to ensure that the seniors in Springfield can stay in their community as long as they want to,” she said.
The RM of Springfield has hired Gordon Daman of Red River Group to help with planning. He has been working on senior housing development with municipalities for the last 20 years including Niverville, Carman, Arborg, Boissevain and Dominion City.
For more information or to be put on the waiting list call 204-853-2255 or visit www.dugaldplace.com.