Supportive housing projects unsafe for neighbours, MLA says

Ongoing health crises in B.C. have prompted the provincial government to open shelters and temporary supportive housing throughout the province in the hope that the "housing first" model will address some of the struggles faced by the province's homeless population. 

But West Kelowna MLA Ben Stewart said those projects could be doing more harm than good. 

"The government has certainly been building record levels of shelter," he told Daybreak South host Chris Walker. 

"My concern has been that it's not growing proportionately with the necessary supports to make certain that they integrate with communities in a thoughtful, planned manner."

Stewart noted that many housing projects are located near some supports, but said he doesn't believe there is adequate mental health and addiction treatment to go with them. 

"If you don't put the mental health and the addiction treatment services with it you essentially don't do anybody any good."

He said the lack of those services has led to an uptick in crime, and has created fear among residents. 

An online petition was started by one of Stewart's constituents who was concerned about ongoing drug use at a particular site and the location's proximity to schools, asking B.C. Housing to step in.

Housing Minister Selina Robinson agrees more supports need to be put in place for vulnerable people accessing housing, and added that more housing needs to be made available. 

"We need to do more housing faster," she said. 

"What we find is that any of the challenges that we see in the community, any of the misbehaviours, any of the challenging behaviours, the inappropriate behaviours [are] typically from people who are not yet housed."

Part of the issue, she said, is educating residents about how housing can help marginalized people.

"Sometimes people will see police cars coming to supportive housing and they'll somehow think that that's crime related," Robinson said.  

"And what we find actually is that it's not often crime related; it's that somebody is hurt or there's been an altercation but no crime has been committed."

Those situations create fear in communities, she said, so educating people about how B.C. Housing works to get people settled into their new homes and how it will help them in the long run is crucial. 

Rather than creating division between the parties, she said it's important for the opposition and residents to sit on housing committees and contribute to the solutions. 

"We can't do it alone as government. We need communities to wrap their arms around these folks."