British Columbia’s housing minister is confident Lift Community Services will be able to run Powell River’s newest supportive housing shelter.
The 40-bed temporary homeless shelter on Barnet Street replaces the one on Joyce Avenue which closed last March after a lease wasn’t renewed.
In an interview with Vista Radio, Christine Boyle says community engagement has been helpful and important to allay fears or concerns.
“I am confident with Lift as a provider and the new purpose built shelter will make a difference as well in being better able to serve the folks who so badly need it and provide a better coordination and blending in in the community,” Boyle said.
The previous shelter on Joyce Avenue drew concerns from the community and the Westview Ratepayers Association over safety.
With fenced grounds, controlled access and a phone number for public complaints, Boyle says it will be more secure for both residents and neighbours.
“What we see in communities where we’ve done this work across the province is that providing people with safe indoor space helps to improve community safety by minimizing encampments and visible homeless so good outcomes on that point but also important security measures and designs in place in the new building,” she said.
The minister was asked about the co-location of qathet overdose prevention and whether that was a common setup in other homeless shelters in B.C.
Boyle says it’s “not common” but done where it makes sense and is based on needs. When pressed for a specific location other than Powell River, the minister couldn’t say, but said shelters don’t permit open drug use.
She was asked whether overdose prevention, including supervised consumption, would be a temptation to vulnerable individuals at the shelter.
“I know that staff at both the shelter and the overdose prevention site will be working to support people through health and recovery and that’s the intention of all of this work is to bring people inside where they can get a good sleep and rebuild that sense of diginity and safety…and then rebuild relationships with and trust with health care providers and other service providers,” Boyle said.
Powell River is among 15 (8 existing, 7 new) HEART (Homeless Encampment Action Response Team) and HEARTH (Homeless Encampment Action Response Temporary Housing) projects.
The Powell River HEARTH project should open sometime next month. The minister didn’t have an exact date for the opening.
The build cost is $4.6 million and it will cost $1.6 million a year to operate.
