Skip to content

Transitional home for young adults opens

Sonya Solonas had a challenging childhood. A ward of the state, as it was commonly referred to back then, she was cut loose at age 18 to fend for herself without much in the way of skills or supports.
Yorkton Transitional Housing for Youth
From left: Mayor Bob Maloney; Kimberley Tyndall, affordable housing consultant with the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation; Peg Beaton, executive director of Yorkton Transitional Housing for Youth; and Greg Ottenbreit, Saskatchewan minister of rural and remote health, officially open a new group home on Circlebrooke Drive for at-risk adults October 14.

Sonya Solonas had a challenging childhood. A ward of the state, as it was commonly referred to back then, she was cut loose at age 18 to fend for herself without much in the way of skills or supports.

At risk of homelessness or worse, Solonas struggled to become an independent adult. It took her longer than it would have had she had the benefit of a safe place to live and learn necessary life skills.

Such a place became a reality for Yorkton at-risk young adults October 14 with the official opening of a 10-room group home on Circlebrooke Drive.

Solonas was on hand for the dedication ceremony along with dignitaries from various levels of government that supported the project.

“Twenty years ago, I was aging out of care, so definitely having somewhere to be where you felt like you belonged would have helped me with my path to success,” she said. “It wouldn’t have taken me so long, I don’t think, if I would have had a place like this to be able to call home and to get the supports on a daily basis like the youth here will be getting.”

Those supports include help with budgeting, keeping appointments, accessing transportation, grocery shopping and other essential skills.

It will be Solonas who is providing that help for the five young women and five young men who will be using the premises to transition to independent adulthood.

Peg Beaton is executive director of Yorkton Transitional Homes for Youth (YTHY), the local community organization that spearheaded the project. She noted the need for second stage housing became evident through the organization’s other programs of providing homes for 16- and 17-year-old at-risk youth and community outreach.

YTHY reached out to the Canadian and Saskatchewan governments for funding and received $375,000 for the acquisition and renovation of the duplex, which will house five women on one side and five men on the other.

“This will give them a stepping stone,” Beaton said. “It is a rooming home so they’re doing their own cooking and they’re paying their rent for their room, so they’re learning what it’s like to rent a place and living together with other people, which is a key thing as well.”

The funding came from the joint Canada-Saskatchewan Social Infrastructure Fund (SIF).

“It’s important to make sure people have a safe place to live,” said Greg Ottenbreit, Saskatchewan minister of rural and remote health and local MLA. “We know the foundation of a good life is shelter and food, so to provide housing like this for those who may need help to transition into what people would think of as regular society is very important and to give them the tools and the skills in a supportive place like this is so they can get into society and be very productive members.”