On March 9th, Northern Sunrise County council signed a letter of understanding approving Heart River Housing to borrow up to $11 million dollars to finance construction of additional lodges at the Pleasantview Lodge in High Prairie and Villa Beausejour in Falher.
Heart River Housing CAO, Lindsay Pratt says they are venturing into new territory, but they’ve done their studies and information review and feel confident this is the right way to go. “Number one, we need more senior housing in our region. Number two, people for the lodge situations are looking for more options than just a bachelor suite, they are looking for one and two bedroom units. So we are looking at building some units that are flexible and meet the needs of the future seniors in our region.” Pratt says the project has been in the works for three years now and the organization targets communities that have need for housing.
Pratt says Heart River Housing thinks the process for Falher’s project would be around and year and a half to start. He says the aging population in our region will not be going down for around 35 years after doing some studies. “We’ve been pretty proactive, should we have done this a couple years ago? Probably. But our needs studies really started comparing the stats and facts to what we are hearing in the field and what the trends are long term.” Pratt added to after being asked why the projects need to start soon.
Pratt says they are hoping to start construction for additional lodges at the Pleasantview Lodge in High Prairie at the beginning of May 2021. Proposed plans show to have 20 new units; half being one-bedroom suites and the other half two-bedroom suites, attaching to the existing lodge on the northwest corner.
-Erika Rolling, Trending 55 Newsroom
