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Halifax has cleared a path for a long-standing community health centre to build a new home, bringing multiple services under one roof.
The NECHC, originally the North End Community Health Centre, plans to build a six-storey building to house their multiple programs including a medical clinic, street outreach, dental care, and housing support.
Marie-France LeBlanc, president and CEO of the non-profit, said their staff of just 23 people has jumped to more than 200 in recent years. They have outgrown their current Gottingen Street space, LeBlanc said, with programs spread out across the north end, and staff working in nearby former storefronts.
“It’s really disparate. So we’re really hoping to bring everybody together,” LeBlanc said Thursday.
LeBlanc said using the NECHC name is now more appropriate because while they will always be focused on the north end, they support people around the city including the Overlook supportive housing site in Dartmouth.
Marie-France LeBlanc, president and CEO of the North End Community Health Centre (NECHC). (CBC)
But the NECHC’s mix of office space for administration and legal advice, with medical and social services, didn’t quite fit any definitions for the land-use bylaw for their new site.
The building will go behind the NECHC’s new supportive housing project Ozanam Place on Brunswick Street, built in partnership with the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul.
The health centre asked the Halifax Regional Municipality for a new land-use designation that was more flexible, and to remove a requirement for parking. Their consultant told the municipality most of the centre’s clients arrive by transit or active transportation, and underground parking would add more than $1 million in costs.
In December, the area’s community council approved Halifax staff’s recommendation to create a new designation.
The designation allows for non-profits offering health care, social services or housing, along with office space to support its programming.
“That was wonderful. It’s a real acknowledgment of the work that we do and the work that needs to be done in HRM,” LeBlanc said.
Area councillor Virginia Hinch said she liked the project’s location, and it aligns with keeping supportive, wrap-around services in the community.
“I hope everything goes according to plan,” Hinch said.
Coun. Becky Kent said she hopes the new community services use, applied to most mixed-use zones in the urban centre, will help other groups facing similar barriers.
“Especially now, knowing the degree of which people struggle, and it’s only going up,” Kent said.
The NECHC has been in their 2131 Gottingen St. building since 2017, said LeBlanc, after they sold their original building two doors down. The non-profit has been active for more than 50 years.
LeBlanc said there remains a “huge need” for their work, pointing to the more than 1,000 people or families on the by-name list tracking homelessness in Halifax as of September.
LeBlanc said their new centre will be more welcoming and accessible than the current building they share with parole and child protection offices, which can be traumatizing for some people.
“It’s really necessary, and it’s a legacy project,” LeBlanc said.
Detailed plans to come for $30-million project
LeBlanc said the NECHC will now focus on raising funds from government and private sources to help fund the roughly $30 million project.
They will work with FBM Architecture to eventually create detailed plans, and LeBlanc said she hopes construction could start within three years.
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