Last Thursday, June 4, council passed rezoning of land just north of the hospital for housing. It’s called supportive because its purpose is to bring people back from homelessness, the first step to giving people a chance to get back on their feet.  Recovery is something many people in this community want for those in need. A slow process; it started about five years ago.

Our city is lucky to have had land to offer. It is why we received the promise of provincial funding for construction and eventual operation, far beyond what municipal taxpayers could afford. Next, a lease agreement must be negotiated with the prov.  Actual construction is yet well in the future.

The idea that refusing to do this will help makes as much sense to me as refusing to offer help to anyone, including my family. I was raised here to look after myself, look after my family, and then look after my community. My parents did it. The problems are not going away until we do what we can to fix them. We can do it, but we must do what we can together. Slow, long work but it is possible.

What we do have now is the new Driftwood Shelter next to the RCMP station.  This also provides an option required by law to manage homeless encampments if it comes to that.  Driftwood is temporary. That land is intended for affordable housing when permanent shelter attached to the proposed housing north of the hospital opens.

No shelter is a permanent solution for anyone. The object is to help people find stable housing. Affordable rentals used to exist until about 10 years ago when that real estate boom and the onset of short-term rentals here started elbowing people out, all across the region.

Short-term rentals are now regulated, but the real estate market is mostly beyond regulating, hence the true and shocking homelessness we now have “downtown” here, like many towns across BC. Housing is simply too expensive for increasing numbers. And yes, many people have come and gone from PR over recent years, but the mill closed too. Our world is changing like never before and it’s clearly hard for us to grasp.  

The new housing is intended to have “complex care” provided by Vancouver Coastal Health. What is “complex care” anyway? It’s actually mental health and addictions services we’ve had for a long time. How they’re deployed to serve the people who need them is evolving. A small part of the proposed housing development will be dedicated to people in acute need. Like the ICMT program, services will be provided within that facility. A significant benefit of that will be less demand on hospital space we all need.   

Lets have the courage to work together in this fine community.