The province and the City of Nanaimo entered a partnership with the goal of implementing better homeless response actions and to create new temporary housing options.
At Nanaimo City Hall on Monday, Jan. 29, B.C. Minister of Housing Ravi Kahlon and Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog signed a memorandum of understanding for Nanaimo to be the fourth B.C. municipality to join programs which aim to increase outreach services and facilitate new shelter and housing spaces.
“No doubt the challenges we’re dealing with around homelessness is a major issue, not only here, but across cities across North America. Nanaimo is not immune from the challenges,” said Kahlon. “We know we have to do more in this community, we have to do more in other communities to ensure that we get people indoors, get them the supports they need, so that they can get that stability back in their lives.”
Under the homeless encampment action response temporary housing program, the Newcastle Place shelter will provide an additional 50 beds after the current residents are moved to a new 51-unit permanent supportive housing building slated to open “in the coming weeks” at 285 Prideaux St.
Additionally, B.C. Housing finalized a lease at 1300 Island Hwy. on the corner of Tenth Street and Maki Road for temporary prefabricated transitional housing that will provide housing for up to 50 people.
READ MORE: Province announces plans for permanent supportive housing on Terminal and three other sites
“Today, together, the city of Nanaimo, with the province of British Columbia, and supportive partners in the non-profit sector, are saying loud and clear in a tangible way, we are going to fix this and we are going to do it together,” said Krog. “What is being announced today in the signing of this memorandum is a recognition that there are human beings, our fellow citizens, who are living in our streets in a 21st-century modern liberal democracy. And that is no longer acceptable.”
Through the MOU, the city committed to bring forward available land and to expedite land-use decisions for new supportive housing projects with the province, through B.C. Housing.
Violet Hayes, the executive director of the Island Crisis Care Society, which manages the Newcastle Place temporary supportive housing, reflected on when she started, when the units housed residents of the Discontent City encampment, and thanked the city and province for allowing the non-profit to “take that next step.”
bailey.seymour@nanaimobulletin.com
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