Deachman: Sprung structures aren’t the best solution for temporary housing, but they may be the best for now

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City council last week held an emotional debate that appeared to have councillors arguing passionately over something they all agreed on: the pressing need for more temporary housing for asylum-seekers and others settling in Ottawa.

With the city’s vacancy rates extremely low and rents high, newcomers are increasingly filling Ottawa’s homeless shelters and physical distancing centres (PDCs) as they await their claim resolutions. The influx of newcomers has made it impossible for the city’s recreation facilities, which were converted into PDCs years ago because of COVID-19, to transition back into the rinks and other amenities they were built for.

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It made sense to convert these facilities back in 2020, when the pandemic confined most people to their homes and shelters couldn’t reasonably enforce the two-metre distancing requirements. But communities need their rec centres back.

Besides, they make for terrible housing. I was recently given a tour inside Bernard Grandmaître Arena in Vanier, a single-pad hockey rink that routinely maxes out with a capacity 106 residents — plus up to 18 more emergency occupants each night. Each cot or bunk is identified by its row and bed number: B6 or E2 or what-have-you, as impersonal as it gets. Residents have no privacy. Apart from the communal showers in the changing rooms, a second-floor dining area is their only other living space. It is a bleak existence without dignity.

To deal with the problem, a report on the city’s Integrated Transition to Housing Strategy proposes building a newcomer reception centre consisting of a pair of Sprung structures, or “modular tension fabric buildings,” which, combined, would house 300 people, ideally for no longer than 90 days each as they (hopefully) transition to permanent housing. The centre would facilitate wrap-around services for residents, helping ease them into life in Canada and Ottawa. It’s expected that the centre, which would be located on one of a shortlist of three properties, would open in August 2025.

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Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr has said that one of them is in her ward, at 1661-1671 St. Laurent Blvd., at the corner of Innes Road. Barrhaven East Coun. Wilson Lo, meanwhile, has posted on social media that the other locations are in Barrhaven and Orléans.

Meanwhile, the money to build the structures will come out of a $105.8-million fund the city is asking from the federal government, with some of that also earmarked for scattered traditional housing as well as a fixed site on St. Joseph Boulevard in Orléans.

The plan, according to a recent memorandum from the city’s Community and Social Services department, satisfies the conditional provincial funding requirement that the city “apply the funding quickly and for the strict purpose of newcomer transitional supports. It cannot be used for permanent housing. The installation and operationalization of Sprung Structures is considered the best and most viable option to fulfill the requirements for both the provincial and federal funding within the required timelines and is the most cost effective considering those timelines.”

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Much of the controversy at council last week was the result of a motion put forth by Lo and seconded by Barrhaven West Coun. David Hill asking council to rescind the authority it delegated to staff last November to pursue, purchase and install Sprung structures.

The pair want the city to consider other options, including mass-timber construction.

Mass-timber construction is a customizable pre-fab option — Hill compares it to Lego — that uses wood components in place of steel or concrete. It’s durable and carbon-friendly and has been used to build sports arenas, office towers, education facilities and multi-family structures. In 2022, it was used to construct a four-storey, 41-unit women’s shelter in Waterloo and a year later an adjacent 10-unit shelter for women and their children. The turnaround time for the initial building was remarkable, going from concept to completion in under a year.

Hill, who in his time in the Canadian Forces lived in Sprung structures and is critical of them, says mass-timber offers far more dignity for those living in them. Lo adds that among the advantages of a mass-timber building is that they can accommodate multi-storeys — current building-code regulations in Ontario allow a maximum height of 12 storeys for mass timber buildings — while Sprung are limited to a single storey, Additionally, if the need for a welcome facility for newcomers lessens over time, the city would have a permanent structure it could add to its housing stock.

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Yet, according to Geraldine Wildman, director of the city’s Housing Solutions and Investments, mass timber was not specifically examined for this project. “Staff are currently working on a modular demonstration project required as part of the Ontario-Ottawa Agreement, which will be underway in 2025,” she said in an emailed statement.

Wildman noted that, “based on previous experience with modular builds, a 40-unit build can take over 2.5 years to complete.”

Lo’s motion failed by a resounding 21-3 vote.

“We all want to try and find a good solution here,” said Hill, who says he’s going to continue to push for a mass timber solution as well as other options such as retrofitting existing buildings. “I think we’re going to move towards a better solution, and that’s what I’m trying to influence.”

In a better world, mass-timber seems a preferable solution, as it offers the potential for permanent housing down the road, which is hands-down better than shelter.

“The addition of 423 new shelter and transitional housing beds in the Physical Distance Centres to increase capacity through the winter months is a short-term fix that fails to meet the needs of vulnerable individuals,” Mag McCallum, interim executive director of the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa, wrote in a letter to council last month.

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Carr, who sits on the city’s Community Services committee (as do Lo and Hill), as well as the Emergency Shelter Task Force and the Ottawa Community Housing board, points to the considerable cost difference between Sprung and mass timber as a factor, with construction costs alone for mass timber about three times as high as for Sprung.

It would be nice if the federal government, which is responsible for immigration to Canada and where newcomers settle, had some solutions to offer for the problem it’s created. But it, and the province, seem content to let municipalities figure it out on their own.

Meanwhile, winter is coming. Perhaps the timeline for Sprung structures could be moved up so no one other than kids in an indoor hockey rink has to freeze. And, if we must continue using arenas and recreation centres as shelters for another winter, perhaps the Bernard Grandmaître Arena and Heron Road Community Centre could be allowed to pass the baton to other wards.

bdeachman@postmedia.com

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