Ask residents if most Island communities of a significant size if they have a problem with homelessness, and you’re likely to get an affirmative response in a unified voice.
Ask for a solution to the issue, though, and suddenly it’s all Tower of Babel.
This week, the Parksville Qualicum Beach region was presented with a unique opportunity to take a key step in addressing the greatest barrier faced by the homeless — namely, the lack of a home.
The province, through BC Housing, has committed $6.9 million in funding to construct 52 units of rental housing and an extreme weather shelter on Corfield Street. Just as importantly, it has also committed ongoing operational funding that will allow the Island Crisis Care Society to staff the facility around the clock.
That funding, and the various support services that go with it, can all go away in a heartbeat if the residents of the region reject it now.
Many people have spoken out against the development this week, both at Parksville’s council meeting on Monday and during an open house hosted by BC Housing and ICCS staff Tuesday. Some opponents seemed to express surprise at the “sudden” approval of the facility, even though the land was purchased for the express purpose nearly a year ago.
Parksville is hardly unique in this. Just down the road in Nanaimo, a similar opportunity for a supportive housing complex was recently lost due to the community’s inability to pinpoint a suitable site.
To be clear, those who live near any proposed site have a right to be concerned about the project and what it might mean to the neighbourhood.
But blanket assertions that it will result in an influx of criminally inclined transients are unfounded. We’ve already got our own homeless — ranging from those who need crisis stabilization to those who simply need a safe place to lay their heads and who are otherwise perfectly capable of working and contributing to our communities.
Rejection of the proposed supportive housing project will not result in a reduction in property crime and people sleeping in the doorways of downtown businesses.
But it will leave a long-term solution out in the cold.
— Parksville Qualicum Beach News