Nanaimo mayor pushes back after province rules out ‘sober' housing project

Global News

10 hours ago

The mayor of Nanaimo, B.C., is pressing the province to reconsider, after it ruled out making a proposed new 50-unit supportive housing a sober-only facility.
Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog and city council voted recently to write the province, advocating for the planned 250 Terminal Ave. project to be a 'dry' facility.
The proposal is to build a five-storey building with 50 studio homes, targeted at people currently experiencing or at risk of homelessness in Nanaimo.
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Krog said the city wants to see the project used to house people who have already made the leap to sobriety.
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'We're just saying, look, those folks that have managed to quit using for whatever reason and with whatever assistance, please give them a place to live where they're not subject to seeing their friends, their neighbours consuming substances every day,' he said.
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'In order to save lives you have to provide safe places for people and a safe place when you're trying to remain clean and sober is not to be surrounded by people in active addiction, not to be in a place where drug dealers and others can come and annoy you or take advantage of your vulnerabilities.'
Housing Minister Christine Boyle said that recovery-oriented housing is an 'important piece of the housing continuum,' and that the province is building another 78-space facility called 'The Sparrow' in Nanaimo that will serve people who want to minimize exposure to alcohol and drugs.
But she said the Terminal Avenue project has always been planned under the province's 'housing first' model.
'Which means being able to bring people indoors and then support them in accessing the health service supports that they need, wherever along their journey they are,' she said.
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Boyle acknowledged that the Sparrow facility won't be 100 per cent dry either, saying that model would risk kicking people back out onto the street if they relapse.
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'If you relapse, which is a common part of the journey. And you risk also losing your housing, that it becomes that much harder to get back on that path,' she said.
Krog said the province has become too focused on the housing first model, arguing, 'it's not the 10 Commandments.'
'It's a rule, the province can change it. It's a policy, the province can change it,' he said.
'For heaven sakes, open your minds up a little bit on this and stop sticking to what I would call an ideologically-based position that is parroted by many in the health community, but sometimes I wonder if any of them have any real experience with the people who've managed to get out of addiction.'
Boyle said bringing people indoors into housing is a key first step in cutting down on the street disorder and open drug use that have become major points of public contention in communities like Nanaimo.
She said the province will be working closely with the city and service providers to ensure safety at the facility.