Welcome Centers for Newcomers: What You Need to Know

Introduction

• City of Ottawa: Project to build welcome centers for newcomers.
• Locations:
  • Main: 1645 Woodroffe Avenue (Nepean Sportsplex).
  • Secondary: 40 Hearst Way (Eagleson park-and-ride).

Project Objectives

• Provide a welcoming environment for refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants.
• Offer essential services to ease the transition to permanent housing.
• Reduce the strain on current shelter resources (60% of clients are asylum seekers).

Justifications

• Increase in the number of asylum seekers.
• Currently, using recreational and community centers for temporary housing.
• Need to reopen these centers for residents.

Overall Plan

• Use temporary buildings and houses for accommodation.
• Collaborate with settlement aid organizations.
• 2 centers able to host up to 300 adult asylum seekers each.

Implementation Details

• Maximum stay of 90 days in the centers.
• On-site services: employment, interpretation, trauma support, etc.

Location Selection

• Study of over 90 locations.
• Criteria: engineering, construction needs, transportation access, etc.

Why Temporary Structures?

• Tension membrane structures: cost, speed of construction, flexibility.
• Potential for future reuse of the structures.

Funding

• Discussions with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada for federal funding.

Opening and Future of the Centers

• Opening planned for late 2025 (subject to funding).
• Consultations on the future use of the buildings.

Public Participation

• Public consultations for the project.
• Engage Ottawa platform for comments and suggestions.