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A couple of years ago, Potter's Hands purchased the Buffalo,
which was an old hotel,
and we've renovated it and changed it so that it can
be a "housing first" project.
And what it really is, is it's a place where 40 people who,
all of whom, almost all of whom would have been
on the streets before are now off of the streets
and have their own place to live.
So we decided to apply for the funding that we got from CMHC
because it wouldn't have been possible to do the renovations
and to change this building into something good
like we have without the kind of funding
that they've been able to give us.
CMHC was particularly helpful
with the Proposal Development Funding
and then later on with the
Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program,
which helped to fund the renovations that happened
in the different suites of the Buffalo Hotel.
Potter's Hands Ministries and Canadian Mental Health
have partnered together for a number of years,
but particularly this is probably our most
exciting project that we worked on together.
The ministry is involved in the building
and in the purchase and acting as a sort of landlord
for the people who live here while Canadian Mental Health
handles the staff and really are the day-to-day,
24-hour support for the people who live here.
The Buffalo provides, first of all,
a roof over people's heads and affordable housing.
The kind of residents we look for here are basically
the hardest to house, and they possibly have addictions
and mental illness, acquired brain injuries
or concurrent disorders.
Those are the kind of individuals we want
to focus on here and get off the street so we can provide
a safe, secure environment for them.
We have security cameras, doors are locked 24 hours a day.
We monitor people that are coming in.
One of the workers at the homeless shelter
told me about it.
I was a little bit overwhelmed when I first came here,
but you get used to it after a while.
This is a safe place to live and know when
there is medical problems, the staff takes care of it.
They are there to talk to you in case you have any concerns.
The staff is really here to help and they do a wonderful job,
they do an excellent job.
The Buffalo Housing here is important to the city
for the fact that it's getting individuals off the street
and at least providing some training for them
and trying to make them a productive part of society.
People are happy to live here.
It's kind of become a community.
That is one of the cool things that has happened here
that I don't know that we really expected that,
but they help one another.
It's become sort of a community.
People are grateful, really, they're grateful that they have
a place to live where previously they were living
under the bridge or they were living in a back alley
or whatever, but now they've got their own place.
There's a pride in being here.