A 30-Year Dream Becomes Reality with Hiawatha’s Rice Lake Elders Lodge
/By Scott Arnold
What began as a dream carried by Hiawatha elders for more than three decades is now a beautiful new home for the community’s older citizens, with 12 lakefront apartments, a community building and a future built around dignity, independence and connection.
The ribbon was officially cut at Hiawatha First Nation’s Rice Lake Elders Lodge, marking the opening of the community’s largest housing project in its history. (Photo by Scott Arnold)
There was a lot to celebrate at Hiawatha First Nation as a ribbon was cut to officially open the Rice Lake Elders Lodge, but the significance of the day went far beyond the project itself.
For more than 30 years, Hiawatha elders had carried a vision of having a place of their own, somewhere they could live comfortably and independently while remaining close to family, friends, community and the land that has always been central to Hiawatha.
Now, that vision is standing on the shores of Rice Lake.
The Rice Lake Elders Lodge is the largest housing project in the history of Hiawatha First Nation, transforming a property that was once home to a tent and trailer park with approximately 90 trailers into 12 purpose-built lakefront homes for Hiawatha citizens aged 60 and older.
The new residents will begin moving into their homes on September 1st.
The new homes give Hiawatha elders the opportunity to enjoy lakefront living while remaining connected to their families, friends and community. (Photo by Scott Arnold)
The ceremony opened in a good way with Hiawatha citizen and Cultural Coordinator Jill Stevens offering a prayer, followed by an honour song. Stevens spoke about the importance of elders within the community and the responsibility to ensure they are comfortable, respected and cared for as they move through their later years.
That theme carried throughout the ceremony.
Chief Laurie Carr described the project as the realization of a vision carried by elders for more than 30 years, emphasizing that the new lodge is about far more than walls, rooms and a roof.
“Our elders are the heart of our community,” Carr said.
She spoke about the knowledge, teachings, traditions and memories carried by Hiawatha’s elders and the role they play in connecting generations to their ancestors, families, land and identity.
The lodge, she said, creates a place where elders can gather, share stories, welcome family, enjoy a cup of tea and simply be surrounded by their community.
It also creates an opportunity for younger generations to spend time with elders, listen to their stories and learn teachings that cannot simply be found in a book.
“Knowledge is passed from one generation to the next,” Carr said. “That is how we keep our culture strong. That is how we keep our stories alive.”
That intergenerational connection is at the heart of what Hiawatha hopes the lodge will become.
The Rice Lake Elders Lodge features 12 lakefront apartments, each approximately 1,000 square feet with two bedrooms and designed for independent living. (Photo by Scott Arnold)
A Project Years in the Making
The journey toward the lodge began taking shape in 2018, when a seniors housing committee made up of community members, Housing Manager Lisa Cowie and then-Councillor Jeff Loucks began working on what the community wanted the project to become.
They discussed concepts, floor plans, the number of bedrooms and the amount of space required, while gathering input from citizens along the way.
The project was transferred to Hiawatha’s Capital and Infrastructure department in December 2022, when Director of Capital and Infrastructure Hayley Vogler and her team took on the work of turning the concept into reality.
That meant years of design work, funding applications, environmental assessments, archaeological investigations, budgets, approvals, revisions and construction.
It also meant navigating plenty of challenges.
“This was not a smooth ride,” Vogler told those gathered for the ceremony.
There were plenty of hoops to jump through, she said, but the team kept working together and kept moving forward.
The result is a project that combines housing, community space, sustainability and a remarkable connection to Rice Lake.
The Capital and Infrastructure department is responsible for Hiawatha’s major capital projects, from their initial planning through completion.
With Rice Lake just outside their doors, the new residents of the Elders Lodge will have a beautiful setting to enjoy for years to come. (Photo by Scott Arnold)
12 Homes on Rice Lake
The heart of the project is the 12 apartments, each approximately 1,000 square feet with two bedrooms.
Every unit is accessible, with four designed to be barrier-free, and all are intended for independent living.
But perhaps the most striking feature is the setting.
Each home offers views of Rice Lake, giving Hiawatha elders an opportunity that some have never had before: lakefront living within their own community.
For Vogler, that part of the project is especially meaningful.
She recalled spending time as a child at her grandparents’ cottages on Paudash Street, where her grandmother described her time at the cottage as her “little slice” of something special.
Now, Vogler said, it is a gift to be able to provide that same kind of experience to Hiawatha citizens.
“It is such a gift to be able to give that same opportunity to our citizens today,” she said.
The importance of that cannot be understated.
Hiawatha First Nation sits along Rice Lake, yet some of the elders moving into the lodge will be experiencing lakefront living for the first time in their lives.
They will wake up with the lake outside their windows, enjoy the view from their homes and remain surrounded by the community they know.
“It’s just such a special and rewarding thing to be able to have housing for them that’s here, that’s lakefront, that’s just beautiful for them to spend the next several years of their life in comfort and in their community,” Vogler said.
The new 1,700-square-foot community building at the Rice Lake Elders Lodge will provide space for meetings, gatherings, events and elders programming. (Photo by Scott Arnold)
More Than Housing
The project goes beyond the 12 apartments.
A 1,700-square-foot community building has also been constructed, providing space for meetings, gatherings, events, community activities and elders programming.
It includes a full kitchen and is designed to give residents and the broader community another place to come together.
There is also a 471-square-foot rental suite attached to the community building, giving visiting family, friends and other guests a place to stay within the community rather than having to find accommodation elsewhere.
That makes the development more than a collection of apartments.
It is a place designed to encourage people to gather.
It is a place where meals can be shared, families can visit, friendships can develop and community programming can take place.
And it is a place where elders can remain connected rather than being separated from the community they have helped shape.
The Rice Lake Elders Lodge transformed a property once operated as a tent and trailer park into purpose-built rental housing for Hiawatha elders. (Photo by Scott Arnold)
Building for the Future
One of the project’s biggest accomplishments is something that will not necessarily be visible when residents walk through their front doors.
The Rice Lake Elders Lodge was designed to meet net-zero requirements, making it one of the first projects of its kind for First Nation seniors’ independent living housing in Ontario.
For Hiawatha, it was a significant undertaking.
It was also a major reason the project was able to attract substantial outside funding.
Multiple funding partners came together to support the project, including the Indigenous Leadership Fund through Environment and Climate Change Canada, Indigenous Services Canada, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the Natural Infrastructure Fund.
In total, the funding secured covered more than 84 per cent of the project’s total cost, leaving Hiawatha responsible for approximately 16 per cent.
Vogler joked that the funding process involved writing applications, waiting, writing more applications and waiting again.
But the effort paid off.
The funding support not only helped make the project possible, it also allowed Hiawatha to offer affordable rents to the elders moving into the new homes.
For a project designed to provide quality housing to Hiawatha citizens, that was an important part of the vision.
The new homes give Hiawatha elders the opportunity to enjoy lakefront living while remaining connected to their families, friends and community. (Photo by Scott Arnold)
