RM of Springfield partners with Dugald Place to create new seniors housing initiative
Today the RM of Springfield announced the creation of Springfield Heritage Housing Inc. (SHHI), a community not-for-profit focused on increasing seniors housing opportunities in the municipality. SHHI is a newly created partnership between the RM, the existing Dugald Place Housing Cooperative and the Springfield Seniors Non-Profit Housing Co-op (SSHC).
The organization’s first project will be to build Dugald Place, the planned assisted living residence located at Dugald Estates.
“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” said Mayor Tiffany Fell in making the announcement. “We are starting with Dugald Place since the project is so well advanced, but this social enterprise model gives us the potential to branch out to our other Springfield communities in the future.”
Springfield Heritage Housing Inc. is led by a six-person Board of Directors comprised of three Springfield municipal councillors and three community members. The Board will be chaired by Lesley Thomson who played a key role in the success of the Dugald Estates project and has been integral in developing the proposed Dugald Place.
“Our vision for Dugald Place is now a major step closer,” said Lesley Thomson who noted while the demand is strong, there is currently no assisted living residence in Springfield. “The municipality has been a continual support for this project,” she said, adding that in their discussions over the past year it became clear that a formal partnership between the community and the municipality was a natural next step.
The selected location for Dugald Place is also home to the well-known Dugald Estates, part of the Springfield Seniors Non-Profit Housing Co-op. SSHC has contributed $150,000 to the project and has also donated the site land. “Dugald Place is the next stage in our ‘Aging in Place’ vision,” said SSHC Chair and SHHI board member Randy Williams. “Over the past 5 years Dugald Estates has proven to be a great success for our community. We are very excited to partner with the municipality to provide more housing opportunities and services to the seniors we serve.”
For further information contact:
Tiffany Fell, Mayor, RM of Springfield, 204-793-4349
Lesley Thomson, Chair, Springfield Heritage Housing Inc., 204-223-2095
Backgrounder:
In January 2020 , the Dugald Place Housing Co-operative was created to continue the vision of Springfield Seniors Housing Co-operative.
Dugald Place Housing Co-op engaged Resolve Project Management and Verne Reimer Architecture to begin the groundwork and design of the Dugald Place project.
All members of the Dugald Place Housing Co-op have been contacted and their deposits will be refunded or transferred to the new not-for-profit, Springfield Heritage Housing Inc. (SHHI), as the co-op’s operations are dissolved.
This not-for-profit entity allows for the municipality to walk along-side the community members involved in the project to help realize the shared vision of assisted living opportunities within the community. Further, the establishment of SHHI ensures long term sustainability and accountability to the community.
The board is comprised of Chair Lesley Thomson, RM of Springfield Mayor Tiffany Fell, Councillor Peter Williams, Councillor Glen Fuhl, Beverly Zarazun (Co-Chair of the previous Dugald Place Housing Co-op), and Randy Williams (Current Chair, Springfield Seniors Housing Co-op).
Affordability for Springfield residents is a key component of the model. Over the coming year Springfield Heritage Housing will be launching a fundraising campaign for this purpose; all donations will receive a charitable tax receipt from the RM of Springfield.
The RM of Springfield has engaged Gordon Daman of Red River Group. Gordon has been assisting communities and municipalities throughout the Province with senior housing development over the past two decades. He has assisted communities like Niverville, Carman, Arborg, Boissevain and Dominion City with various not-for-profit based seniors housing projects – with a deep commitment to aging-in-place outcomes.