 | Home page |  | Text size |  | E-mail this page |
A 3-D design of the new 55,000-square-foot, 60-bed facility called the Aven Pavilion which AVENS hopes to build by May 2015. - illustration courtesy of AVENS |
AVENS launches $33-million campaign CEO hopes new 60-bed facility and retrofit of Aven Manor will fill gaps in NWT seniors' services
Candace Thomson
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, July 24, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
AVENS announced last week that it is launching a $33-million campaign to build a new 55, 000-square-foot, two-storey complex called the Aven Pavilion in Yellowknife, which would provide 60 extra beds.
In addition, the company plans to do a complete retrofit of the Aven Manor, established in 1987, turning the facility into 30 supportive living units.
The process is expected to take three years and the company hopes to have the facility completed by May 2015, according to CEO Jeff Renaud.
"I've been told that's pretty ambitious," he said.
Renaud said AVENS is in consultation with its stakeholders and hopes to have a funding commitment from the GNWT and other providers by the fall.
"We've enjoyed a wonderful partnership with the government agencies," said Renaud. "And folks across the NWT have been very generous in supporting infrastructure development and needed services for adults."
In the news release regarding the campaign, Renaud stated there are currently 173 seniors' long-term care beds in the NWT with a 19-bed waiting list. By 2026, he said, the number of beds needed could grow to more than 600.
"The big message and real concern right now is we don't have the infrastructure to support seniors the way they should be supported," he told the Yellowknifer. "If we don't have a good game plan we could be looking at a crisis in the not-so-distant future."
Maureen Hall, president of the Yellowknife Seniors' Society, knows first hand the desperate need for sustainable seniors housing not only in Yellowknife, but in the NWT.
"It would blow your mind if you knew the statistics," said Hall, who is a senior citizen living in one of the eight housing units at Aven Ridge. "There is such a need throughout the territory."
She was on a wait list for nine years before getting in to Aven Ridge. When she finally was given the opportunity to move to senior housing, her rent at the Anderson Thomson tower went up 10 per cent, to more than $1,600 per month.
"If it we didn't have this facility, I don't know where I'd be," she said. "I would not have been able to retire here if it wasn't for the facility."
Aven Ridge is one of four housing complexes owned by AVENS.
Renaud said the pavilion should help to fill the gap and provide a way for seniors to stay and live in the North.
The new pavilion will also add 20 full-time jobs and support staff, not counting the work involved in the construction and design phases.
Hall said the Yellowknife Seniors' Society has been involved in public consultations by AVENS and will continue to support the project.
"This expansion is needed beyond what I can say," she said. "I'm excited for the whole project and I back them 100 per cent."
She said the Seniors' Society cannot afford to offer financial help to the development, as it requires funding to remain active on a yearly basis, but that it would help the campaign.
Hall said he is confident the campaign will receive the funding it needs.
"This town gets together when something is needed," he said.
| 
