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Posted January 12, 2021

Today, the Ontario government declared a second provincial emergency along with additional restrictions, effective immediately for at least 28 days. This comes as the number of COVID-19 cases has doubled in the past two weeks, severely threatening the capacity of the healthcare system.

New measures include:
• Stay-at-home order as of Thursday, January 14 at 12:01 am (aside from essential purposes e.g., groceries, medical appointments)
• Extended school closures in hotspots until February 10, with emergency childcare available for eligible families
• Outdoor gatherings limited to five people, with limited exceptions
• Mandatory masks in all indoor spaces and strongly recommended outdoors
• Non-essential stores limited to operation between 7 am and 8 pm
• Non-essential construction further restricted
• Increased inspection and enforcement measures, including in workplaces

What does this mean at HNHC and for our residents?

• Our office will continue to be closed to the public.  Residents are encouraged to use our website to submit maintenance requests and other communications or to email us at hnhc@hnhousing.ca
• With the additional restrictions, we are limiting the number of staff working at our office.  Some staff will be rotating work schedules or working from home.  Residents calling in are asked to leave a message on the extension of the staff member they are trying to reach; staff working from home will be checking their mailbox frequently and will call you back, we thank you in advance for your patience.
• During the state of emergency maintenance repairs will be limited to emergencies and life safety.  Please submit your maintenance requests, but please understand that non-essential repairs will be held until the restrictions are lifted.  You can submit your maintenance requests here, or by emailing maint@hnhousing.ca
• Common rooms at our buildings will remain closed for your safety.  When leaving your apartment, please wear a mask, wash your hands or use hand sanitizer frequently and do not congregate in the hallways or outside.  These measures are important and could save your life or the life of your neighbour.

As part of the Safe Restart Agreement, the federal government is funding a temporary income support program that allows workers to take up to 10 days of leave related to COVID-19. Find more information about federal supports, including Employment Insurance, Canada Recovery Benefit, Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit, and Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit.

With the impacts of social isolation on mental health and well-being, residents are encouraged to visit the province’s COVID-19: Support for People website which has information about many free mental health services and supports.

We ask that all our residents take these restrictions and precautions seriously!

If you have any questions, please email your Property Manager:

Tricia Feist – tfeist@hnhousing.ca

Todd Smith – toddsmith@hnhousing.ca

Please stay safe and stay healthy!

To view or download the HNHC 2019 Annual Report, please click here

Many businesses are beginning to open, which is great news!

Due to the major road construction in front of our office on Kent Street in Simcoe, we will not be opening our doors to the public yet. There are no sidewalks, many construction vehicles, and a lot of digging – getting to our front door is like an episode of Wipeout!

We will continue to serve our residents by telephone, email, and through this handy website.  Our property management team visits our properties on a weekly basis, so a (socially distant) meeting can also be set up at your location if you need to meet with a team member.  Please call, email, or fill out a message on our contact page and we can set something up that works for you.

We have received many Resident Satisfaction Surveys – Thank you!

Even though the deadline was June 30th, we still want to hear from you.  If you have not completed your survey yet, please complete it electronically here.  Your opinion matters to us.  We’ve re-organized, re-aligned, and have been working very hard to improve communication, resident satisfaction, and build stronger communities. We want to hear what is working and what we can do better on.  Talk to us, we’re here to listen!

In the meantime, please continue to follow Health Unit guidelines for safe distancing, washing hands, and wearing masks in public.  We’re getting there, but we’re not there yet.  We’re still all in this together!

Louise Jones
Business Services Supervisor
Continuous Improvement Advocate

Haldimand and Norfolk Counties are now moving into “Stage 2” of the Province’s Pandemic Recovery Plan!  This is great news and an important next step for our community.

What it means for HNHC and our Residents:

• We will be reviewing maintenance requests deferred by the pandemic and we encourage residents to call your Property Management Team if you have any new repair requests.
• We can resume offering vacant units to applicants.

Stage 2 is only the next step, we will continue to practice social distancing measures and encourage our residents to do the same.

When will the office reopen?  

Our Leadership Team has discussed this and we agree that at this point we are unable to safely open the office until we have measures like physical distancing aides in place that will protect you our staff and the general public!   Some of these measures will include:

• Additional signage directing clients to maintain the proper distance and how many clients can enter the lobby at one time.
• Additional hand sanitizer available in the lobby for everyone who enters the office.

Another important reason we are holding off opening the office is due to major road construction on Kent Street, right in front of our office.  At this time it is very difficult to access our office safely.

When we feel clients can safely make it to our door, we will announce the re-opening of our office.  Until then, we ask that you continue to contact us through telephone, email, or through our website.

Rent payments can continue to be made through e-transfer, mailing a cheque, or by setting up Pre-Authorized Debit.

Thank you everyone for all that you’ve done to keep our community safe.  We are all in this together!

**Please remember to return your Resident Satisfaction Surveys, if you have lost your survey you may complete it online by clicking here.”

Hello!

We’ve developed this new site to better communicate with our Residents and Community.  If you reside in one of our homes, thank you for visiting this page!

We need your help!   An important part of our strategic plan is continuous improvement.  In order to do our best, we need to hear from our most important stakeholders;  You, our Residents.

We ask that you please complete our Resident Satisfaction Survey by June 30, 2020.  Paper copies were mailed to you at the end of May with our Spring/Summer newsletter, The Porchlight.  We included self-addressed stamped envelopes for your convenience.   You can also complete your survey online!

It’s fast and it’s easy!

Please click here to start your survey.  When you’ve completed it, just click submit!

To those who have completed their surveys,

Thank you!!  We are reading them and we are listening!

“What Gets Measured, Gets Improved.”
Peter Drucker

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback about the surveys or this website, please feel free to contact me.  I am working to make our processes and procedures better so that we can serve you better.

Sincerely,

Louise Jones
Business Services Supervisor
ljones@hnhousing.ca