Town Hall Meeting

re: New Salvation Army Facility at 333 Montreal Road

Tuesday, June 20, 2017 (8:30 a.m. 9:45 a.m., and 3:00 p.m. to 4:20 p.m.)
Chapel of the OBC facility at 171 George Street
Presentation by Gordon Lorimer, a partner with the architect firm Hobin Inc., and member of the Board
of the Ottawa Mission (He was supported by Patrick Bisson, an architect at Hobin Inc.)

The Salvation Armys planned Ottawa complex at 333 Montreal Rd. in Vanier has been purposefully
designed to meet the needs of a multi-faceted six-storey hub of services for homeless men. Each
storey will cover about 17,000 square feet. Calling the new facility a shelter is inappropriate, said
Ottawa Booth Centre executive director, Marc Provost. We are doing a lot more than providing three
meals and a bed to clients, he added.

The Salvation Army (SA) has presented the owners of the property with a purchase offer conditional on
the city changing the zoning bylaw to enable the SA to relocate to 333 Montreal Rd, explained Gordon
Lorimer, the main architect of the project. The facility will accommodate up to 350 overnight
guests/clients.

The SAs new Montreal Road location will replace the Concorde Motel, considered a peculiar site,
favored by prostitutes and bikers. Next door to the west on Montreal Rd. is the Salvation Army Thrift
Store. Immediately to the east on Montreal Rd. is a Gabriel Pizza franchise. To the east of that is
Finnegans Pub. The John Howard Society has an office on Ste. Anne Ave., also located nearby to the
northwest.

Part of the immediate surrounding area, the quadrant, is residential, (Montfort St.). The rest is mixed
commercial (Ste. Anne Ave., Granville St. and Montreal Rd.)

About 23 staff members attended the Town Hall session on Tuesday morning.

The questions from staff members Tuesday morning included:

Q. Will the Salvation Armys current George St. facility be sold?
A. Yes, and the proceeds will be an important part of the financing plan of the new facility, along with
general fund-raising and an expected contribution from a major donor.

Q. Will there be staff parking on the facility?

A. There will be some staff parking on site. Parking is prohibited on Montreal Rd., but there is the
possibility of on-street parking on neighboring streets. (See below re 2-hour parking limits)

Q. Is there parking space for our Booth Centre vehicles?

A. Yes, there will be a drive-through area that can accommodate the two EDS vehicles. There will be
another indoor parking area for the street outreach van and two outdoor parking spaces for the housing
response team.

Q. When will the new facility be completed?

A. The aim is to complete construction of the new centre by 2020

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Q. Where will Community and Family Services be located?
A. In the Thrift Store facility.

Q. Have you given thought to the likelihood of the Thrift Store generating more business and becoming
a busier place than it is now because of its convenient location bordering on Montreal Road, combined
with synergies associated with the Salvation Armys Community Family Services being located in the
basement of the Thrift Store building?
A. Yes, and increased levels of business could develop if renovations are well planned. That would be a
good outcome because that part of Montreal Road is weak and lacking in animation. A thriving store
setting would serve as a catalyst and contribute to bringing positive identity to that area.

Q. Will there be an employee changing-room in the facility?

A. Yes, in the basement.

Q. Will the kitchen also be in the basement?

A. Yes, but it will not feel like a basement. This will work.

Q. How will security features come into play, in particular to prevent drug dealers from preying on our
clients as they do at our present facility?
A. Much of the facility will be fenced in. There will also be a high brick wall separating the facility from
Gabriel Pizza which will be too high to be scaled. (Gabriel Pizza is located at 339 Montreal Road.) The
regarded Ontario firm, Security Through Safe Design Inc., is involved in the project design of the facility.

Q. How many freight elevators will there be? One of two? (Two elevators might be needed to handle the
volume of traffic of clients carrying large quantities of food from the food bank.)
A. The current plan is for there to be one elevator.

Q. What will happen with the snow on the patio? Where will it be put?
A. To be determined. No definitive answer advanced.

Q. Has thought been given to opening the facility up to the community?

A. Yes, one of the eight design principles of the new facility is that it shall contain Space to facilitate
Community Interaction. There are four areas that the facility will open itself to the public:
- The clients front yard area, where members of the public can have access
- The front terrace, where the public can also have access
- The chapel, for various faith-based functions
- The proposed caf in the Thrift Store facility.

About 20 staff members attended Gordon Lorimers Tuesday afternoon presentation. They
asked the following questions:

Q. Will the Housing First wing on the ground floor have the necessary space for staff to meet with their
clients?
A. Yes. There will be shared office space in the Housing First Wing as well as a private meeting room.

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Q. Where is the Community and Family Services (CFS) going to be located?
A. It shall be in the Thrift Store. Most of the CFS will be in the basement, in an area where sufficient soil
will be excavated to make a basement room for the food bank. Clients seeking food bank provisions (in
what will be the excavated basement area), will access and later depart the food storage area by way of
a flight of stairs or a freight elevator up to the ground floor.
Other features for the Thrift Store is a planned small sunken area where large windows will be installed
in the wall to bring natural light into the food bank basement area. There is also a smallish caf planned
for the Thrift Store which will provide an opportunity to CFS clients to benefit from anonymity. [Need to
check how this will work, or simply delete it.]

Q. About the number of beds in the facility, how many will there be, and where?

A. There will be 140 emergency accommodation beds. Fewer than we now have. There shall also be an
increased need and use of beds by certain of the organizations programs, such as:
- 28 beds - life skills
- 42 beds - flex
- 60 beds - special care unit
- 30 beds - working mens dorms
- 30 beds - Anchorage
- 20 beds - stabilization
210 beds (various programs)
In all, 300 beds will be located on the west (?) side of the facility, and 50 beds on the east (?) side

Q. What about the clients of the Housing Response Team (HRT)? How will they access the building?
A. The HRT clients will enter the building through the main entrance. Note that all flow through the
buildings will be controlled with the use of door access control systems, keycard locks, FOBs and similar
such means and devices.

Q. What about worker safety? Will the design take into account the danger that clients could corner
staffers and confine them in the courtyards, and the need for staff to be able to quickly exit and escape
their attackers from recessed areas in the terraces?
A. Security measures in the facility will include visual supervision, sight lines, security cameras and door
access control systems. A security consultant will be reviewing the plans with regard to all issues of staff
and client safety. (There will be later opportunities to review safety issues, and many others, as future
town hall meetings will be held as the project progresses.)

Q. Will there be easy access to the complex for Emergency Disaster Services (EDS) vehicles?
A. Vehicles will drive onto the property from Montreal Road though the main entry. That roadway will
be wide enough to accommodate fire trucks (about 25 feet wide), wide enough to be navigated by EDS
vehicles.

Q. Why was a site chosen for the new SA facility in an area where there is a motel (Concorde) that is
reputed for high levels of prostitution and use of drugs?
A. The facility will indeed be in Vanier, an area that is being gentrified somewhat along the same lines of
the community of Hintonburg, which is experiencing a proliferation of restaurants and an influx of young
couples building funky houses. Gentrification is also in the city plan for Vanier. The prostitution issues

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at the Concorde will be resolved and disappear with the demolition of the Concorde motel, which will be
knocked down at the outset of construction to make way for the Salvation Army facility. Indeed, the
plan calls for the new Salvation Army centre to take over the entire footprint of the Concorde motel.

Q. When a truck laden with food provisions arrives late in the day, where can it be parked over night for
the goods to be safe from theft until the truck is unloaded the next morning?
A. If that occurs, one of the vehicles in the garage will be moved out and replaced by the food laden
vehicle. (Parking the truck in the garage is an extra precaution. The new site will be fully secure with
little likelihood of thieves first illegally entering the facility, then breaking into the truck full of food, then
loading the food into another vehicle and escaping the Salvation Army property with the stolen goods.)
Note that a sort of high-roofed car port will be built for large trucks to park underneath in the winter
months and be protected from heavy snow falls.

Q. What about parking automobiles on the property? How much space for cars will there be?
A. There will be 28 outdoor parking spaces, 26 for employees and two for the vans belonging to the
street outreach services. (There was additional discussion about the availability of nearby on-street
parking. However initial information indicates that the maximum period for on-street parking in that
area is two hours.)

Q. Would it be possible to build underground parking to make space for more vehicles?
A. No, it is an issue of cost. In Ottawa, underground parking spaces for condominiums cost $35,000 per
condo unit. That would be prohibitively expensive for the Salvation Army project.

Q. Will there be a changing room for kitchen staff?

A. The staff changing room will be in the basement.

Q. Will there be space allocated for primary care of clients?

A. The new complex was designed to have a good deal of flexible space to accommodate a wide variety
of lodging and programming needs. Our current facility contains 60,000 square feet. The new facility will
occupy about 100,000 square feet. The flexible space available will thus lend itself to permutations and
combinations, but options will not be unlimited. For reasons of competing needs and financial
constraints, it will not be feasible to accommodate all needs.

ENDS///////////////////////////////////

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