NEOSS board members and local politicians gathered for the ribbon cutting of the organization's' new four-unit second stage housing building. (Aaron Schulze/northeastNOW Staff).

By Aaron Schulze

NEOSS New Home

NEOSS second stage housing unit opens

Apr 26, 2019 | 10:57 AM

Nearly 10 years of lobbying, planning, and work came to fruition on Thursday when North East Outreach and Support Services’ (NEOSS) second stage housing unit officially opened.

The Governments of Canada and Saskatchewan, along with NEOSS, officially opened the new four-unit emergency shelter for women and children who are escaping domestic violence.

Louise Schweitzer, executive director for NEOSS, called the project’s completion a dream come true.

“It’s something that we’ve worked towards for a long time,” Schweitzer said. “To provide the opportunity for women and children to move further on in their journeys through domestic violence, and freedom from domestic violence.”

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Coun. Glenn George attended the opening on behalf of the City of Melfort and echoed the same feelings as Schweitzer.

“It does my heart good to see what they’ve done and how hard we had to fight to get it in the first place,” George told northeastNOW. “The amount of work NEOSS does in all the communities of the Northeast is fantastic.”

A second stage housing unit has been on the NEOSS board’s capital campaign since 2009. The federal and provincial governments jointly contributed $670,000, and Schweitzer said every R.M. in the northeast area donated to the housing unit.

Two of the four suites in NEOSS’ second stage housing building contain four bedrooms for larger families. (Aaron Schulze/northeastNOW Staff).

“This is their facility,” she said. “This is the people of Melfort and Northeast Saskatchewan that have come together. NEOSS holds the place of being the owners of the facility, but it’s the community of the Northeast’s.”

One of the identified factors NEOSS wanted to cover was larger families. Two of the four suites have four bedrooms as NEOSS is told by larger families they find it difficult to find affordable and safe places to rent in their community, as Schweitzer said it’s more expensive to house a larger family.

“The self value and self-esteem of the women, the emotional and psychological violence that many of them go through along with the other violence that’s purported on them, this gives them some self value back,” Schweitzer said. “They’re worth it. That’s something we need to realize with any individual that’s leaving a violent situation, they need to once again believe that, and this is one way we can show them.”

NEOSS will be able to rent out the second stage home beginning May 6.

Looking on from above

April Phillips, right, the widow of the late Melfort MLA Kevin Phillips was in attendance for the NEOSS ribbon cutting. (Facebook/April Phillips).

One of the guests in attendance for the NEOSS second-stage home opening was April Phillips, the widow of the late Melfort MLA Kevin Phillips, who passed away suddenly at age 63 on Nov. 13, 2017.

Schweitzer said Phillips worked with her closely through all of the lobbying when he was the mayor of Melfort and when he went on to become MLA, as it was a project that meant a lot to him.

“Kevin would be very proud and would look at me and probably say ‘I knew you could do it,’” she said. “He always knew this was a part of it. To not have him here today is kind of sad, but I know he’s proud.”

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow