Junot Ave. transitional housing project for young people in term

THUNDER BAY – A transitional housing project for Indigenous young adults is on schedule and on budget, said officials with the Thunder Bay Center for Indigenous Friendship, which will manage the new facility alongside the Metis Nation of Ontario.

It’s been seven months since shovels went into the ground and construction is underway for Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services’ 58-unit project at 125 Junot Ave. S., near the Boys and Girls Club.

Katie Bortolin, director of housing at the Indigenous Friendship Center in Thunder Bay, said the project should be completed by January 2026.

The three-story transitional housing will have 58 units of mixed group and independent living spaces.

Bortolin said any “self-identified Indigenous person at risk of homelessness” between the ages of 18 and 29 is eligible to live in the facility.

The facility will help youth struggling with addiction by providing access to on-site clinical support and employment and training programs offered by the Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Center and the Métis Nation of Ontario.

All people staying at the facility will be required to abstain from drugs and alcohol, and staff are on site 24 hours a day.

“It gives them the opportunity to start at the beginning of their journey to redefine themselves and find their identity,” Bortolin said.

She noted that the last measurement data on youth homelessness collected from the Thunder Bay District Board of Social Services was in 2022.

They found that 68% of people who identify as homeless in Thunder Bay are Indigenous, Métis or Inuit; 29% of these people said they were young under the age of 34.

“I think that’s a critical number that we really need to talk to in Thunder Bay. We are in the depths of the real estate crisis. We desperately need beds and a safe space for people with full services and support,” Bortolin said.

“And by opening those doors, we’re going to give people spaces to move out of (living) homelessness into transitional housing, where we can identify the gaps they need to move them into independent living,” she continued.

The youth transitional housing project was launched for the first time City Council in 2018but lack of funding halted the project until the province provided the design $8.7 million for construction.