Parksville council has approved a plan to build a $7-million supportive housing facility to help serve the homeless population.
Council voted 5-2 Wednesday in favour of bylaws permitting the provincially funded project to proceed. The three-storey building with about 50 units will be operated by the Island Care Crisis Society at 222 Corfield St. South.
The vote followed a four-hour public hearing two weeks ago.
“It was a step,” said Coun. Kim Burden, who voted in favour of the bylaws. “It is not the end of the road for what we are hoping to accomplish.”
The facility is aimed at serving those in the community who are victims of a lack of rental housing and housing options, he said.
This population is underserved, he said. “They have barriers to a variety of things, including employment and finding suitable housing.”
Burden estimates the new facility will open at the beginning of 2019.
Parksville residents were split on whether the project belonged on that location near the city centre.
There were different perceptions on what a facility should provide, Burden said. “There was some emotion expressed at the meeting.”
Coun. Teresa Patterson, who voted against the bylaws, said she is in favour of low-income and supportive housing.
“Our community is very much divided,” she said. “I feel that we could have gone back and revised this bylaw and made it a little more acceptable to the public.”
The project was conceived within B.C.’s rapid response to homelessness program. The province is aiming to quickly develop 2,000 modular housing units around the province in communities where the number of homeless people is increasing.
B.C. centres are struggling with how to respond to rising numbers of homeless residents at a time when rental housing is in short supply.
Communities, social agencies and governments are trying to keep people safe in the wake of exploding numbers of overdoses from illegal opioids.
The building will serve the area from Deep Bay in the north to Nanoose in the south. Within that region, there are about 100 homeless people, with half in Parksville itself, Mayor Marc Lefebvre has said.
The Oceanside section of the Regional District of Nanaimo bought the property for social housing, he said. It will be a partnership with the province, the Regional District of Nanaimo, Parksville and the town of Qualicum Beach.
