Lynwood Charlton Centre fills a need

A Hamilton group home for teenage girls with mental health issues is finally ready. After a lengthy battle with the Ontario Municipal Board, opposition from neighbours and months of renovations. We toured the Lynwood Charlton Centre Friday.

It’s an old book binding factory that was built in the early 1900’s. The project cost almost a million dollars. It’s been open for exactly one week now. They have 5 girls living there right now, but space for 8.

After four long years, Hamilton’s Lynwood Charlton Centre has a brand new home with lots of common space and bedrooms for eight girls.

Alex Thomson, Executive Director: “We have created a space that is very funky and loft like.”

This new facility on Augusta Street helps girls between 12 and 18 years old with emotional, mental health and behavioural issues.

Thomson: “They need someplace to be safe and settle and get some worries under control and go back in the world and do good things.”

Girls like Molly Crayford, who spent more than a year in the program: “I think it helped me a lot with having a safe place to live and grow.”

And having a safe and comfortable place was the goal when designing this new facility.

Thomson: “It’s a very comfy room for the kids.”

Since these girls usually come to stay for about six to eight months.

Crayford: “A lot of people aren’t as privileged to have a good home environment to grow and to work on yourself and this gives you a place you can strictly focus on recovery.

For almost 60 years they had been operating here on Charlton Avenue West. They’d been renting the space from the city but it was cramped and needed more than a million dollars in renovations.

Thomson: “Here it’s all on one floor and everybody has really good site lines on whatever is happening in the building.”

And while staff say it’s good to finally be moved in, It wasn’t without a few struggles. The move to the Corktown neighbourhood was opposed by neighbours and city council amid concerns that two similar residential programs were operating in the same neighbourhood. But the Ontario Municipal Board approved the move last year.

They are having an open house next Thursday and have invited the neighbours to attend and see what they are all about.

The staff say they think it will be positive.