Nanaimo's navigation centre, announced last week, could be operating by early 2025.
In late June, B.C. Housing announced that a site was identified for the navigation centre on city-owned land at 1030 Old Victoria Rd. The facility will serve individuals who are experiencing long-term homelessness and require a higher level of support than typically offered at a shelter.
Mayor Leonard Krog told the News Bulletin that the location was chosen to spread out social housing across Nanaimo. He pointed to 53 affordable rental units recently opened on Hammond Bay Road and 62 units on Seafield Crescent which provide housing for moderate and low-income seniors as well as people living with disabilities.
"They're being spread across the city, which is appropriate – you don't want things concentrated. This is a good site from a construction point of view, a relatively level site, etc., and a large enough property to accommodate," Krog said. "There's not a lot of larger properties left in the City of Nanaimo within the boundaries."
Some feel that, despite the city's aim to spread social housing across the city, the location choice continues to centralize supportive housing in one part of town, a position taken by the South End Community Association's chairperson Sydney Robertson.
The Old Victoria Road address falls within Chase River neighbourhood boundaries, but less than half a kilometre from what is considered the south end neighbourhood.
"If an area is expected to carry this much of a social burden we need amenities to build the community up, to bolster morale, to carry us along and that's everything from actual affordable housing, which we would love to see in our neighbourhood," Robertson said. "Affordable housing, bus shelters, public art, green space – we have a lot of supportive housing services and a lack of green space in our neighbourhood."
Robertson said while low-income housing and supportive housing both fall under the umbrella of social housing, they're two distinct models.
"They're different and there's not enough supportive housing being decentralized into the centre and north of the city."
The proposed centre is to be operated by the Vancouver Island Mental Health Society, which will provide health services, such as connections to mental-health and substance-use programs, services focused on stabilization and connections to housing, overdose prevention and response programs, and a daily meal program.
"The centre will provide a safe and supportive access point in the continuum of housing, which is an important step in ensuring the well-being of people in this community," said Taryn O'Flanagan, executive director of VIMHS, in a press release.
Plans for the facility include approximately 60 private sleeping units, each with a locking door, bed and place to store personal belongings. The building will include communal washrooms, a commercial kitchen, laundry/utility room, amenity room and office.
The facility itself will be a "temporary structure" modular building, according to the mayor, but there will be potential in the future for a more permanent structure.
Krog said he wants the neighbouring community to know that when properly managed, as the city expects will be the case, navigation centres play a key role in treating the homelessness crisis.
"This is a very necessary step to deal with significant problems with mental health, addictions, trauma and brain injury that created the significant level of street disorder you see in our city. These are people who are not going to get better or be able to stabilize their lives and get into what I would describe as permanent long-term supportive housing unless they get a lot of supports and help – that's what a navigation centre is designed to do."
The centre was first announced by the province in September 2020.
