View Royal mayor says supportive housing desperately needed in CRD

View Royal Mayor David Screech wants his regional counterparts and the provincial government to find the resources needed to build supportive housing facilities in the Capital Regional District as soon as possible.

Screech says supportive housing, where a range of on site services are available for people with mental health and addiction issues, is critically needed to get people off the streets and reduce the strain on service providers concentrated in downtown Victoria. 

"I don't know there is any municipality who should be immune to looking at that type of housing," Screech told On The Island host Gregor Craigie in a phone interview Wednesday. "We all need to step up to do our part."

On Tuesday, Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps told CBC the city has run out of land for additional supportive housing and called on the provincial government to help it acquire more.

View Royal, a town of approximately 10,000 people west of Victoria, is home to a 50-bed therapeutic recovery centre for men that opened October 2018, and Screech said the municipality is prepared to look into building more.

Last year, The Capital Regional District came up with $30 million to create affordable housing and that money was matched by the provincial and federal governments. Screech said the money is being used to build 400 units that will rent at "shelter rates" for people on low-income assistance and 2,000 units will be built in total. 

But the big gap, says Screech, is the lack of supportive housing buildings, which he likens more to medical facilities.

He says municipalities should take on the responsibility of finding property to free up, and the provincial government should "be prepared to help run these facilities". One incentive for municipalities, according to Screech, is, like hospitals, supportive housing facilities can be tax exempt.

Screech told Craigie if supportive housing was available outside of Victoria, it could reduce the number of homeless addicts on the streets in the capital city. He also noted the municipalities west of the city, which include View Royal, Colwood, Langford, Metchosin and the Highlands, are without a homeless shelter. 

"I found it embarrassing that on the West Shore we don't have any shelter beds," said Screech. "We're putting people on the street who really don't have the tools and aren't prepared because of mental health issues."

To hear the complete interview with View Royal Mayor David Screech, access the audio link below