Housing Empower Simcoe

SCS hosts Housing solution discussion for developmental services sector

Housing DiscussionSimcoe Community Services CEO Claudine Cousins hosted Community Living Upper Ottawa Valley Executive Director Chris Grayson and Community Living Ontario CEO Chris Beesley in Barrie on January 28th to discuss Housing solutions for the developmental services sector.

Grayson shared with the Senior Leadership Team at Simcoe Community Services some of his agency’s strategies that have assisted his organization in responding to both the capital costs and the need to potentially realign and reduce property ownership due to aging infrastructure, the changing needs of people supported, and partnerships with existing property owners. According to Grayson, “It’s about playing in other people’s sandboxes.”

Cousins added, “It involves asking people where they want to live and who they want to live with. It also involves thinking differently without re-inventing the wheel. For Simcoe Community Services, our vision is transforming the housing and group living model we have now to one where individuals have a choice in who they live with and where they live. It needs to be their home and not our group home. A visible and measurable outcome will be when people we support can say, ‘This is My Home. I have my own key’. That’s where we need to be. By partnering with developers, property owners, local politicians and community partners, we intend to get there.”

Housing simcoe Community services

(l-r) Chris Grayson, Claudine Cousins and Community Living Ontario CEO Chris Beesley