Wheatland Lodge begins offering temporary residence option

By John Watson Local Journalism initiative Reporter

Wheatland Lodge has officially begun offering a short-term stay option for those who need a temporary space to be or who are considering moving into the facility permanently and want to test it out first. 

Resident Manager of the lodge, Christi Shworak, said the team has been thinking about offering the service for some time and are now in a convenient position to try it out and gauge local interest.

“What changed for us at this time, is that we had a room that was available to be used for that purpose, so we took the opportunity to convert it into a furnished room,” said Shworak.

“We decided that we would offer it to the community to see if there was interest for the short term stay room.”

Temporary occupancy of the room will not be considered a respite space, according the Shworak, but will offer the same services to a guest as if they were permanently residing in the facility.

“If seniors are living with their family members and maybe they want to come and try out the lodge for a few days to see if it’s something that interests them, or if their family is going on vacation and they need a place to stay … It really gives them a good feel of what the lodge has to offer … so if they (become interested) in moving into the lodge, we could talk about that as well.”

There is a minimum time of three days stay required to book the room, with a maximum of two months that a person may occupy it. Shworak said by the end of an extended stay, the occupant will have a better idea of whether they wish to move in permanently. 

“Right now, we’ve definitely only put one room up as an availability for that because we do have some other rooms available for seniors to move into and rent on a longer-term basis,” said Shworak.

“We have been asked about if we have this type of room, from families in the past. And at the time, even before COVID-19, we just didn’t have availability, or rooms that didn’t get filled with seniors.”

Shworak anticipates many of those who opt to make use of the service will do so for a week or two. She is optimistic to see how the community responds as the service becomes more well known throughout the community.

“It’s not something that we’ve offered in the past, so that’s why we’ve put it out there as a new service offering through the lodge,” Shworak added.

“The key thing is to know is that we do still have rooms that people can rent and this is just a side option to see if it’s something that they’re interested in.”

The service was officially announced as being made available to the public on Jan. 27.