Moosomin Housing Authority moves locations

July 7, 2025, 9:52 am
Ashley Bochek

The Moosomin Housing Authority has moved locations to Carleton Street beside the Borderland Co-op Administrative offices.

Justiss McGonigal became manager of the Moosomin Housing Authority this past December.

“I am the manager of the Moosomin Housing Authority. It is a very good and broad job—lots of moving parts to the role for sure. Each month is a learning curve and is something new. Both Shannon and I, being new, are taking it step by step, asking help from higher ups if needed. We have called Sheilagh in and she has been very helpful. Darrell has been really great, too. I started last December and it has been really good. It is dealing with a lot of different personalities. There are so many different personalities out there, so you have to look at the big picture.”

McGonigal explains the challenges of managing the housing authority.
“Adapting to each person’s needs and personalities can be hard because everyone is different and every situation is different. You have to make sure you go into each tenant’s situation with a very open mind and learn how to approach their problems and make it work for them, which I wouldn’t say is a challenge because it is something new to learn, but I quite enjoy the challenge to be honest with you. It is very good.”

Moving to new location
McGonigal explains the reasoning for the Housing Authority to move locations in town.

“Our lease was going to end in June of 2025 and we saw online that John Glasser had posted this building online and I got thinking about getting a new lease—now would be the time to do it because I wouldn’t want to break a lease with anyone. Our former landlord didn’t want to sign another five-year lease. There isn’t just office space available when you want so that is when I put it forward to my board, then to the higher ups at SHC and they thought it sounded good so next thing you know we were making the move. It might have been only the start of May when we got thinking of that. It happened really quick and then we moved Friday, June 27.”
Moosomin Housing Authority is newly located in the old IG Wealth Management building on Carleton Street.

“We lease this space,” McGonigal said. “John bought it for the parking spots in the back so he gave us the two spots by Sasktel and the whole building so it is really good.
“We have a lot of space in here and there is a basement as well. There is much more space than our other location. This building was also recently renovated so such a good place for us especially when we are looking long-term. We have zero intentions of ever going anywhere after this move.”

Moosomin Housing Authority locations
McGonigal lists the housing available from the Moosomin Housing Authority.
“We have 140 housing units because we picked up Wapella.”

We have eight in Wapella, three in Fleming, and then the rest are in Moosomin. Roughly, 90 of those would be senior units, but we have 140 doors. So, the senior units we have a few that are doubles, Knotty Pine would have two rooms that are doubles and have two per room, Centennial has—one upstairs and downstairs that are a two bedroom, the rest are all singles. Then, Stirling Manor has two that are two bedrooms and the rest are all single bedrooms. Then, Moose Mountain Place, those are split-level duplexes, they all have three bedrooms. Down Ogilvie Street we would have a bunch of houses as well and then we have senior housing which are a bunch of duplexes as well.
“It is meant for low income families so there is a threshold that you can’t exceed. So if you were above that it would be a no essentially unless we had a bunch of vacancies, somebody in the house is better than nobody in the house, but that has not been reality since I have been here. I would say it is 50/50 our tennants between seniors and families. We have waitlists. In Moosomin, we only have one empty unit and it is a double so we won’t just put anybody in there. Then, Wapella they are considered senior units, but we don’t have any seniors in them. Then, in Fleming I have three, one is a house and the other is a duplex.”

No Vancancies
McGonigal explains the housing authority has no vacancies.
“We are at max capacity and I can’t see us getting more doors in Moosomin. I have thought about that lots. I have seen apartments go up for sale and just think ‘How do I get Sask Housing to buy these?’ But I just don’t see it happening. I say that we are full, but we are constantly moving though. There is constant change in the housing. When it comes to seniors, there are people moving in, families are relocating. The whole point of housing is to help you get to your next step in life and then once you get there you leave. The goal isn’t always to be a low income family or housing or whatever brought you to Moosomin Housing Authority or any Housing Authority. The goal is to always take the next step and that is something I am trying to help people do. There is the odd person that comes in and is comfortable, but the goal is always to continue to thrive.”
She says the housing authority has waitlists for applicants.
“In April I was getting an application a day. It was very overwhelming. It was only three months for me into the job and it was overwhelming, but it slowed down so my senior waitlist is improving very well. Two months ago it could be a month, it could be a year. Now, I say it could be a month or it could be six. I can’t predict when people move out. People get quite frustrated with that, but I really can’t predict when somebody wants to move and that is hard for some people to understand, but I would definitely say we are down more to a six month wait.”

Importance of housing authority
McGonigal explains the significance of the housing authority for surrounding communities.
“It is very important especially for the low income families. These families cannot be paying what places in town are asking for rent and a lot of them don’t have the ability to go buy a house and get a mortgage that would be cheaper than renting. Then, when it comes to seniors some buy-ins to some places are well beyond the means that a lot of people have so I would say the housing authority is very much important and I don’t see that going anywhere with the way the world is right now either.
“I went to the conferences for Sask Housing Authority in June and this isn’t just a problem in Moosomin of not having enough space for people, it is all across the province and if I learned anything at those, we should be very grateful in Moosomin. We don’t deal with one eighth of a problem that the other areas do. We are beyond blessed Moosomin Housing Authority. We are very lucky.”
McGonigal says the housing authority’s mission is to help anybody and everybody with housing issues.
“To continue to house the people that need help. There are a lot of people that need help out there right now and to continue keeping roofs over their heads, keep them out of shelters, get them help they need, and I very much believe in when a young mom comes in we look at all the resources she could be using in Moosomin—we have Kids Sport, we have the Family Resource Centre, the Food Bank, so just making sure they know all the resources available for them. A lot of these people have very little support so I just want to make sure they know and have all of the resources available to them in town.”

Open-mindedness
McGonigal says she remains open-minded within her position.
“I am very open minded and talk to them. I know there is a policy to follow, but I don’t want to scare them and push them away. I will approach with a conversation and see where they are most comfortable at their place or my office to have those conversations. I just recently asked on lady if she wanted me to help her budget month to month, that is not in my job description, but if you need help learning how to do something I can help if it helps you. It always has to start with an open and honest conversation. There are many options we can set up for them. I am just very much an open-door policy and I feel I have made some way with it especially in the seniors as well. They often felt that they weren’t sure if they could tell me what was going on so I just keep a very open-door and it seems to be working.

“Typically, I have experienced people do reach out to me it is probably not coming to my office. It will be either a phone call or a text. When I first came here it was word-of-mouth manager to manager of who they felt did better with text or phone calls or in-persons. Then, what I have found over the time being here somebody will often speak up for them. I think over time it will be word-of-mouth that I am willing to talk to anybody about anything and I did make it clear that, ‘You may not like what my solution is to the problem, but I will always deal with the problem so please bring sure you bring them forward.’ And that has been working great.