Recovery oriented housing announced for previous 250 Terminal supportive housing site in Nanaimo
The planned 50-unit supportive housing building at 250 Bryden St is planned to replace the current temporary housing at Newcastle Place. (Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7FM)
After outcry from the community and advocacy work from the City of Nanaimo, the Government of B.C. has announced they will be changing plans for an upcoming housing project.
On Thursday September 3rd, local MLA and Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, Sheila Malcolmson, joined the Mayor of Nanaimo, Leonard Krog to announce that a soon-to-be-built supportive housing project will operate as a recovery-oriented housing site.
The planned 50-unit supportive housing building at 250 Bryden St (previously 250 Terminal Ave.) is planned to replace the current temporary housing at Newcastle Place.
Minister Malcolmson said, seeing how much low-barrier housing is already available in Nanaimo, she and the government knew they needed more recovery-oriented housing.
“This housing will support people in recovery from substance use, people who've been at risk of homelessness or experienced homelessness and need additional support to stay housed, and to people who want to reduce their exposure to drugs and alcohol,” Malcolmson said.
She said this substance-free housing model will expand the types of housing people can access throughout the city.
“By expanding the range of housing options available in Nanaimo, our government is helping to ensure more people can find the support and stability that they need to move forward with their lives,” she said.
Malcolmson said she hopes the new building will help fill in the gaps for people experiencing homelessness on their journey to substance use recovery.
“We're counting enormously on people who are in active addiction and want to get out of it for them to be able to to get the help that they need,” she said. “The model is kind of like the cancer care system, once you're diagnosed, you get navigated through the system, and it hasn't been that way for the mental health and addiction system.”
She said when the building at 250 Bryden St opens it will be for people who are on a recovery journey or are leaving homeless and want to be in an environment where there is no active substance use.
The site is currently home to a temporary housing facility operated by Island Crisis Care Society. Malcolmson said when the new facility is built, the government will make sure people living at the current site will remain housed, even if they are not currently fit for recovery-oriented housing.
“Our commitment as a government is that no one will become homeless as a result of that transition,” she said.
She said the operator for the new building has yet to be decided, but it’s something the government is currently working on.
This announcement comes after months of advocacy work from the Nanaimo city council to bring more substance-free housing to Nanaimo.
This work included a Special Governance and Priories Meeting in June of this year where council heard from many speakers about the need for recovery-oriented housing in Nanaimo. Several speakers expressed a desire to see the 250 Bryden St site be recovery-oriented.
At the end of the meeting council voted to have the mayor write a letter to the Ministry of Housing to again request that new supportive housing at 250 Bryden St be composed of “dry” supportive units.
At the announcement on Thursday, Mayor Krog said that following the letter, the province decided to reconsider previous plans to make the site a low-barrier facility, and instead have the housing be recovery-oriented.
“The people who will be able to live in this new facility will have a much better opportunity to engage in a fruitful, productive, and happy life,” Krog said. “We all want to live in peace and security and happiness.”
Following the announcement, CHLY heard from Karen Kuwica, President of the Newcastle Community Association about this change of plans for the supportive housing development.
“I think that drug traffickers just got an eviction notice,” Kuwica said.
Kuwica said the community association has been advocating for housing on the site to be substance-free since the opening of Newcastle Place in 2018.
“The announcement just happened, and I'm really encouraged,” she said. “I'm also encouraged that we've been invited to be part of the discussions about how the program will go out and the site itself.”
She said this type of housing is needed in Nanaimo.
“We've always said that supports are necessary for people that are coming out of substance use or want supports without being in an environment where substances are used,” Kuwica said.
The 50-unit recovery-oriented housing project at 250 Bryden St is expected to break ground next year.
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.
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