The B.C. Ministry of Housing is expected to announce a purchase agreement today for Mount Edwards Court Care Home, across the street from Christ Church Cathedral School, to provide housing for homeless people.
“That is going to happen,” said Emory Haines of the Mount Edwards Community Awareness Coalition, who speaks for school parents and residents living on Rockland, Burdett and Vancouver streets.
The Provincial Rental Housing Corp. is offering $3.5 million to buy the building from the Baptist Foundation of B.C., according to a document filed at the Victoria Land Title Office.
But instead of housing 101 homeless people, Haines said he has received information that housing is planned for 40 people living in the tent city on the nearby provincial courthouse lawn.
The Times Colonist could not confirm this with the Victoria Cool Aid Society, which went public in December with a proposal to house 101 homeless people in the Mount Edwards building if it could raise enough money.
“That site has the potential to be a very, very nice supported housing building,” said Don McTavish, Cool Aid’s manager of shelter programs, who said he could not comment further, but was anxiously awaiting the announcement for clarity as to what will happen.
He said the encampment on the courthouse lawn has grown despite the departure in January of 40 residents for the My Place temporary shelter on Yates Street, paid for by the province.
“I, for one, think it has reached a scale where safety is a big issue for the people [in the tent city],” McTavish said.
“That’s a large number of people crowded into a small space with minimal facilities.”
In mid-December, Steven Portman of Together Against Poverty Society estimated there were 55 tents. McTavish estimated there are now 100 tents, but he could not estimate the number of residents. “I’m not sure you could fit another tent in there if you tried,” McTavish said.
People are coming from other places to join the protest and fight for housing, he said.
“We’re looking forward to continuing to work with the campers no matter what happens, and try to find options for them.”
On Dec. 9, a week after the province committed to the Yates Street shelter, Premier Christy Clark said that homeless people camped on the courthouse lawn will eventually be asked to leave if they refuse the province’s offer of housing.
She said Housing Minister Rich Coleman, who is expected to make today’s announcement, has dealt with similar issues in other communities and has a “good program” for resolving them.
“The first thing we’re doing is identifying housing for every single one of those people and offering it to them,” she said. But she made clear that there is a limit to the government’s patience. “If some of them decide after that, that they don’t want the housing, they’re going to be required to leave,” she said. “Because this is public land; it belongs to the citizens of the province.”
Haines said the community association is not working against the Mount Edwards housing proposal; it only wants to ensure that concerns of parents, children and residents are met.
Parents of children at the school feel “wounded” by the way the housing project has played out, he said, but suggested that 40 homeless people would be easier than 101 to integrate next door to the school.
He said B.C. Housing should provide increased levels of staffing and assistance along with security for 18 hours a day given the proximity of young children.
“We are going to work to see that as many of our concerns are addressed as possible now that this is happening.”
Rockland resident Jim Fliczuk said neigbhours were given “absolutely no warning and no consultation” about the project and there needs to be a public process before such a major change to the community goes ahead. “Everything seems to be going on behind closed doors.”
