Just before Christmas, Sacajawea Non-Profit Housing staff members Miranda Rappazzo and Lisa Pottruff graciously led members of our congregation on a tour of several of their buildings that have benefitted from donations by our congregation. We saw the cultural room at Sacajawea’s 23-unit building at 18 West Avenue South. From the street, the room is behind the large Sacajawea logo that provides privacy but lets in light.
In the photo to the left, looking east, Lisa, in the orange jacket, describes how the more than $40,000 we donated was used to build, equip and furnish the cultural room. It is in regular use, for classes, ceremonies, tenant-staff meetings or just for hanging out. Above, Monica Bennett in red, Lisa, Joan MacNeil and Tom Jones.
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Founded in 1987, Sacajawea has grown from 28 units in 2015 to 72 today and will soon have 89.
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At right, with the kitchenette in the background, Joan MacNeil, Kelly Wolf and her son Rhys, Mary Anne Tangney from St. Paul’s United Church, Dundas, Miranda Rappazzo, Gail Rappolt and Monica Bennett. Bill Johnston took the photos.
We also got to see Sacajawea’s office space, where our donations provided the work table that provides a space where tenants can use computers. At the back in that photo are offices and a meeting room dedicated the memory of Corinne Williams, president of Sacajawea’s board for 25 years.
At right is a kitchenette. The office is in the Ain-dah-ing building, part of Indwell’s The Oaks housing community on East Avenue North. There are about a dozen tenants upstairs in that building.
The final stop of the tour was a project under construction at 16 Steven Street, the old Pearl Company entertainment venue. Sacajawea is renovating the building into 15 units plus two more in a house—the foundation is shown in the photo at left—around the corner on King William Street. Tenants are expected to move in in May 2024. Our donations at the 2023 Christmas Eve service will help provide the appliances for the tenants of this project.
Many of Sacajawea’s tenants move directly from homelessness to housing.
Future projects: a 40-unit building at 204 Gage Avenue—completion perhaps by late 2025—and a 10-unit building at 95 Dundurn South.