City of Ottawa converts unused office space to interim housing for asylum seekers

The City of Ottawa has converted unused office space in a downtown building into transitional housing for 140 asylum seekers — just blocks from Parliament Hill.

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says it’s the first time the city has converted empty office space into temporary housing — something cities across Canada are pursuing as they grapple with a countrywide housing crisis.

“Turning a vacant office building into transitional housing is exactly the kind of creative solution that we need right now,” he said. “We are facing a real crisis in our city, a housing and homelessness crisis, and this shows one more step toward making progress in tackling that.”

The project uses modular walls to set up separate rooms — each with a bed, a storage locker and a chair — along with shared kitchens, meeting rooms and office spaces.

There are shower stalls and laundry facilities over the three floors of housing space, and a coworking space at ground level.

Downtown city councillor Ariel Troster said secure access to both temporary housing and office space can help keep newcomers off the streets and focused on establishing new lives in Canada.

“That is fundamentally different from the traditional shelter system, where people might be in bunk beds, they might have to wait in line for their bed, they might have to check in and out every day and wander through the city,” she said.

The local Catholic Centre for Immigrants said 35 staff members will be on hand to offer residents everything from help with asylum claims and finding work to meals and mental health support.

“Most of our clients will be asylum seekers. They found themselves in homelessness situations for the only reason that a work permit isn’t ready,” said Myriam Mekni, executive director of the Catholic Centre for Immigrants.

“Once they are able to afford rent, that’s when they will be eager to move out to their permanent house.”

Converting the space cost $5.6 million and the city is holding the building under a 10-year lease.

CSV Architects converted the space to housing. Darryl Hood, a principal with the firm, said turning a commercial space into a home for more than 100 people is a complicated process.

“There is a fairly lengthy process to go from point A to point B. Probably the biggest challenge is getting the right building,” he said. “They’ve often had multiple lives.”

Hood said the new project includes communal kitchens and showers because creating actual apartments with separate plumbing would be complex work and might alter the humidity and airflow of each space.

The building used to be the Capitol Cinema, which was closed down around 1970. Hood said they found surprises throughout the building, such as beams in the ceilings that seemed to be part of the movie theatres.

The atrium for the new facility was built where the box office used to be, Hood said.

The project is being launched months after the city backed down from a plan to house refugee claimants in two large suburban tent structures, which attracted loud opposition.

Troster said she hopes the project in her downtown ward can be replicated in the suburbs.

“I really hope that this will be a lesson to the rest of the community, that these kinds of facilities, they help build community, they can integrate seamlessly into our community, and that they’re a good thing and we need more and more of them,” she said.