Two social housing projects announced this summer will help meet the unique needs for people experiencing homelessness in Nanaimo, says the B.C. government.
B.C. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon was in Nanaimo on Wednesday, July 17, to tour an affordable housing complex and talk about the government's work on the housing and homelessness files.
Last month, the province announced a 60-unit navigation centre on Old Victoria Road, and this month, announced that 78 supportive housing units were coming to the former Travellers Lodge on Nelson Street.
The projects represent the third and fourth locations related to a five-part memorandum of understanding with the City of Nanaimo to house people living in encampments. Kahlon said a navigation centre differs from supportive housing in that it is both a type of housing and an access point for people to connect with the social services they need as part of a first step to longer-term housing.
"Through the decampments that happened around the whole province … we really learned that moving people from the street directly into supportive housing often didn't work and maybe moving people from shelters into supportive housing is more successful, and then to pile on support so people succeed in housing," added Sheila Malcolmson, Nanaimo MLA and minister of social development and poverty reduction.
Kahlon said the navigation centre will be able to direct individuals to various programs suited to their unique needs.
"Because we've been scaling up so many different types of supports in Nanaimo in particular, we want to make sure the navigation centre works with all those different pieces and that's the work we're doing right now," he said.
The Travellers Lodge supportive housing, for example, is envisioned to house individuals wishing to minimize exposure to drug and alcohol use. The housing minister said Nanaimo city council had asked for different models of supportive housing and said the social service sector has been advocating for the same.
"If there was just one housing solution for every individual, this problem would have been solved a long time ago, but people have unique needs and we're trying to meet people where they're at and that's what the navigation centre is trying to do…" Kahlon said.
"We're trying to create a pathway. We're using shelters as an entry point where we can do assessment. That assessment allows us to make sure we have the right mix in our different supportive housing sites and when they're able to move away from supportive housing sites and they've got the supports, we can put them into [affordable housing], we can get them in with rent supplements. We're trying to build the continuum."
Even though the province and the city have made progress in identifying places to house people experiencing homelessness, Kahlon said there's more work to do all along the housing spectrum. He said anyone who suggests the province can step away from the housing file is wrong, and suggested market housing and social housing are "interdependent" on one another.
"We don't have enough housing for people and those with means continue to take up the housing that is available. Anyone below that continues to get pushed and pushed and pushed," the minister said. "We need to address the challenge at hand, which is the most vulnerable population that finds themselves in encampments and sleeping in parks, but we can't do that without addressing the greater challenge which is approving housing quicker and getting more housing options online because the two are connected."
