Celebrating 10 years of Indwell’s Hambleton Hall

The staff of Indwell had small stations set up demonstrating all of the different aspects of the work they do, pictured is Kenia Alves Recruitment Coordinator. 

Leah Bauer

Advocate Contributor

On July 16th, Indwell opened its doors to celebrate 10 years of Hambleton Hall. Located on John Street in downtown Simcoe, Hambleton Hall and the workers of Indwell have brought affordable supportive housing to our community for the last decade. 

The building was at one point a part of St. James United Church. Eventually, the needs of the church community changed and the decision was made to put the building up for sale. When selling the nearby building the members of the St. James Church community wanted it to be used for good. Indwell made an offer for the building, but they didn’t have the money raised yet. Kindly, the members at St. James Church gave them a year to raise the money. Indwell’s success in raising the money is evident as they have been a force for good in the community ever since.

Justin Dewaard, Regional Director, said “there are 40 units of housing in this building. Five of them are dedicated to our transitional housing program, for individuals that are coming directly out of homelessness.” 

For Indwell, success in tackling homelessness is more than just giving people an affordable place to live. Dewaard said “It is about making sure that they have the support to be successful in that housing.”

The open house was an opportunity to allow the wider public through the doors of Indwell and a chance to see the work that they do for our community. In addition to this Dewaard said, “It is a celebration, a celebration of 10 years of housing in this community.”

For Dewaard events like the open house can help show the community that change is possible: 

“I think we all want the same things, nobody likes addiction. We all want people to be free from addiction. We all want people to be free from mental illness. We want to live in safe communities. The solution to that is not to distance ourselves, but rather to come together on nights like tonight. To do courageous things and to lean in because these are problems that we can solve.” 

Learn more about Indwell, what they do, and how to receive support on their website: https://indwell.ca/.