House if Friendship receives provincial funding [Video]

House of Friendship in Waterloo Region is getting $1.6 million from the province as part of Ontario’s new Mental Health and Addictions strategy.

House of Friendship is a nonprofit organization that provides food, housing, addiction treatment and neighbourhood support to individuals and families in the region. The organization helps more than 42,000 individuals each year.

In January, they also received $8.5 million in funding from the Ontario government.

Staff at House of Friendship said that money would go towards turning a former Waterloo hotel on Weber Street into its new home.

“It’s a very significant property, the Comfort Inn allows us to have a dignified space that we have been working for the last year to renovate,” executive director John Neufeld told CTV News on Friday.

Neufeld said this new funding will go even further.

“We have the building. We have the operations to run the shelter but we didn’t have the healthcare component. So today’s funding is incredibly critical …