Nanaimo council heard from BC Housing on how they plan to manage community engagement on their 1030 Old Victoria Road supportive housing site.
Earlier this year council moved to lease the site to BC Housing pending they create a Good Neighbour Agreement and establish a Community Advisory Commitee.
In a letter to council BC Housing stated that it no longer implements Good Neighbour Agreements at supportive housing sites in the province due to stigmatization of tenants, pressure on non-profits to find support outside of their mandate.
“I think it’s really important that the community does get a community consultant group,” said Counsellor Armstrong. She added that it’s important that there is recourse for the community written into the lease.
“Every time the police and fire go, that’s city dollars. It’s not often the residents that are the problem, it’s the people that come to feed their drug addictions. It’s the people that are actually preying on the residents that are the problems,” Armstrong said. “That’s when you start to need to security, and I don’t think the city should be paying for that.”
BC Housing also said that they are moving away from Community Advisory Committees, but they did propose creating a “Neighborhood Integration Plan”.
“I’ve found that a cookie-cutter model of a Community Advisory Committee wasn’t working, it really didn’t honor the specific community. We are moving forward to be more responsive,” said Heidi Hartman, Associate Vice President, Supportive Housing and Homelessness Programs, BC Housing.
Hartman said that BC Housing is open to starting the integration plan before the doors open for tenants at 1030 Old Victoria Road.
“I definitely feel a lot more assured about the community integration plan,” said Councilor Ben Geselbracht after the presentation by BC housing.
Council voted in favour of leasing the property to BC Housing for 3 years pending the creation of the Neighborhood Integration Plan.
