Niverville gets first group home, will service disabled adults

The Town of Niverville will be getting its first group home after council approved the application during a council meeting last Tuesday.

Simaril, a Winnipeg non-profit that houses people with physical and intellectual disabilities and addiction issues, was approved to house up to four people with severe physical disabilities to live in a home located at 225 Third Street North.

“From a council perspective, we have the logo, Where you belong, and we really want everyone to feel that they can belong here. That’s our goal. So, whether they are, however they are, from their physical means to their neurodivergent means to their emotional and mental means, we understand that as the community grows, we’re looking to provide additional services so that all people can believe that this is a place where they also belong,” said Mayor Myron Dyck during the public hearing on the matter.

The meeting had about six residents who live on the street come to voice their concern that the home will be used to house those recovering from addictions.

“We wouldn’t be looking at putting anybody in these locations here with any addiction issues,” CEO Jeff Daly told residents. Daly has been CEO of Simaril for 15 years.

Daly explained that out of the 25 homes in Winnipeg that the organization has set up, four are helping people with addictions by providing transitional housing. He said the reason these homes are all located in Winnipeg is because there are services, such as therapy, that are readily available there. He said locating a transitional home for addicts in Niverville wouldn’t be practical.

He noted the home will have trained direct support workers, one for each resident, on site 24/7 working in shifts so the residents will never be alone. He noted the funding received for the group home is coming from the province with specific parameters and an annual licence review.

He said to turn the home into transitional housing for addicts wouldn’t work as the home has only four bedrooms and transitional housing usually has more than five people living there, referred to as a cluster.

“The intention and the purposefulness of this house is exactly the way it is. To change anything like that for us would have, I mean, there’s no practical reason to do that…There’s no plans now, currently, or in the future to have any type of treatment facility or people with addictions in that house,” said Daly.

Daly shared with The Carillon that two of the men living in the home are from the Niverville area and are completely wheelchair bound. The third man is coming from Winnipeg and he may be independently mobile. There is also an extra space left for a fourth person should the need arise.

The benefit of having these local people living in the Niverville home is that they can stay closer to their families and the community they are familiar with, according to Daly.

“We assume sometimes when someone has a disability, it doesn’t matter (where they live). They can live wherever we tell them to live, but they have rights too, and they very much are connected with their community, in fairness to them,” he told The Carillon.

The reason Niverville was chosen as the first rural location for a Simaril group home was based on the recommendation of the Eastern Region of Community Living Disability Services (CLDS) and the province, when they heard the organization was looking for a rural location as rural residents had been approaching it for service.

“And Niverville has so much. It’s an attractive place to be,” Daly told The Carillon.

“I think the community, like even from the meeting, we have a lot of wonderful people who really care about their community, which I really appreciate. I enjoyed the questions that people posed because I think it just shows me how much they care, and I think that’s really important, and I really support that for sure.”

The home that Simaril bought is currently under construction where about $30,000 will be invested into making it wheelchair accessible with wider doors and hallways, a roll-in shower, ramps for entryways, and the installation of emergency lights, all of which are requirements for their licence.

Dyck recommended that council vote to approve the conditional use bylaw change from a single-family residential unit to a residential care facility for people with disabilities. He also put the conditions that all staff parking be fully accommodated on the site and that Simaril maintain the annual provincial letter of licensing in good standing.

Council voted unanimously to approve the conditional use.

“I feel a lot of comfort in what (Daly) said, is that this is a home. It is. These people are going to be aging in place till the end, and this is their home, and you’re not going to be moving people in and out of there,” said Coun. Chris Wiebe when giving his vote to approve.

Daly told The Carillon the adults who are being cared for in Niverville will most likely live in the bungalow until the day they die, as Simaril is able to offer end of life care.

Dyck also recommended that the matter be brought back to committee to discuss the definitions of a group home and treatment centre and their uses and to determine zoning as to where such facilities can be located in town.

CAO Erik King said three definitions would be needed: A large-scale residential care facility, like the one that Simaril is proposing, with a cluster; a small addictions recovery centre with less than five people; and a large addictions recovery centre with a cluster.

Simaril was founded in 1987 when two parents decided they couldn’t physically take care of their two disabled adult children anymore and couldn’t provide the services that they needed.

Simaril supports about 300 people with disabilities in Manitoba. It has 60 adults living residentially in their group homes and 180 adults who live independently in Winnipeg. It also has a home share program and provides respite as well.