House of Hope, located at 460 - 216 Street in south Langley, currently has 14 beds for women in addiction recovery. It operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with staff living on site. The new two-storey wood frame building will add a common dining area for residents, additional support services and eight housing units for long-term residents.

The Province provided the land for a nominal fee through a 20-year renewable lease. Community partners provided in-kind donations of windows, doors, steel, drain piping, plumbing and additional construction materials. Private donors contributed more than $220,000 for the construction of the building.

The province also provided $525,000 to build nine greenhouses at this site and at Wagner Hills, a nearby 50-bed facility for men overcoming recovery, to expand the on-site greenhouse work programs that teach greenhouse operations and nursery skills to residents in recovery.

Wagner Hills Farm Society operates and manages the site as well as the healing Christian community that offers support services, farm work and job skills training for individuals to better enable them to positively give back to the community.

Quick Facts:

• Since the provincial housing strategy was launched in October 2006, the budget to provide affordable housing and fight homelessness has increased from $218 million to $521 million for 2011-12.
• Over the last decade, the provincial government has committed to build more than 21,600 new units of social housing - from supportive housing for the homeless to affordable rentals for individuals, seniors and families with lower incomes. More than 19,000 have been completed or are in development and another 1,866 have funding committed.
• In 2008, the Province provided $250,000 through the Provincial Homelessness Initiative for renovations to the 14-bed facility at Campbell Valley House of Hope site.
• Established in 1981, Wagner Hills Farm Society, a healing Christian community, promotes and assists the rehabilitation of people with substance addictions and behavioural and spiritual needs. The society has been successfully operating supportive transitional housing developments for men at Wagner Hills in Langley and Shelter with Chemical and Alcohol Rehabilitation Services (S.C.A.R.S) in Fort St. John.

Learn More:

Visit www.bchousing.org/breakingthecycle to learn more about provincial programs and services to address homelessness.
Visit www.wagnerhills.com to learn more about Wagner Hills Farm Society's programs and services offered to support community members at large.

Contact:

Rhonda Nguyen
Communications Specialist
BC Housing
604 439-4740
604 374-8301