Inside the Shepherds of Good Hope's supportive housing on Merivale Road

Inside a controversial supportive housing unit CTV's Peter Szperling takes a tour inside a Shepherds of Good Hope supportive housing building in Carlington that has concerned neighbours.

Shepherds of Good Hope is speaking about what they do and what they provide at a supportive housing facility in Carlington after neighbours raised concerns.

CTV News Ottawa was invited to tour the facility at 1095 Merivale Rd. and speak to staff and residents following issues raised by those living nearby.

"It's not true that all crime committed in this community is done by (the residents at) Merivale," said Roger 'Tiger' Lalande, a resident at the facility.

Tiger, as he calls himself, says he was homeless before moving into the building about two years ago. "Here, they take good care of me — really, really good care — and I'm happy to be here."

He showed his personal room, complete with a bed, private bathroom, and a sitting area. The room was filled with artwork he made.

Residents are provided with a variety of services. "This is one of five supportive housing programs that Shepherds of Good Hope delivers across the city of Ottawa. We have 57 residents who live here. They're tenants. They sign leases. They rent much like any other renter in the city of Ottawa," said Shepherds of Good Hope senior manager of program development Adrienne Sesiakin. "The difference is that they receive 24/7 wraparound support from our frontline staff and our health care staff on site."

Residents receive meals, health care, and the organization says the facility is structured to support residents' well-being, life skills development, and community integration.

Tammy Paterson is a nurse coordinator with Ottawa Inner City Health and works at the facility. "A completely different person here," she said about a patient and resident who she's treated since moving to the facility. "Remember them downtown. They were really unwell. Aggressive. And now they're here and they're housed and they're stable and well."

The organization stresses this facility is not a shelter. "1095 Merivale Rd. is supportive housing, not a shelter. It differs in that people here pay rent. They sign a lease. They are permanent residents. Whereas, in a shelter, an individual may live very transient and come and go and just utilize a bed when they need to. But here, people live permanently."

At a community meeting in November, Carlington residents raised concerns about crime in the area, with some feeling that a concentration of Shepherds of Good Hope housing units on Merivale Road is hurting the community.

In July, residents voiced the same concerns to CTV News Ottawa, and opposed a plan to build another facility nearby.

"They're allowed to do narcotics in this facility, and it's not really supervised," said Frank Germano, area resident in July. "They can take those narcotics off the property, do them wherever they wish, and we have had instances where individuals were doing narcotics and parks where children were, you know, so you got needles everywhere and stuff like that."

River Ward Coun. Riley Brockington told CTV News Ottawa he's heard from many residents about issues around the buildings.

"We've heard from local residents, local business owners since day one, since June of 2023," he said. "Things have lessened now as we continue to address some of the more challenging residents. I understand a few residents have been rehoused at other locations outside of Carlington that has helped lessen some of the issues."

There are currently three Shepherds of Good Hope buildings in the area at 1053 and 1057 Merivale Rd. Down the street, another at 1095 Merivale Rd. opened last year and there are plans to build a fourth building right beside that.

Sesiakin says Shepherds is open to communication with the community. "I would encourage our neighbours who have concerns about our presence here to reach out. If they have concerns about our residents, we want to hear that, and we want to help address that," she said. "When people are exiting chronic homelessness, some of the habits that they've developed over years or decades of living homeless and living in survival mode can follow them into housing. But we're working really, really closely with our residents to create better community norms and break some of those habits. And we are really focused on resident success and community integration.

"We really want to be a good neighbour, and we want to hear the concerns and work collaboratively with the community to address those concerns."

-With files from CTV News Ottawa's Natalie van Rooy