There will be more people and resources focused on resolving issues around homelessness on the Sunshine Coast thanks to grants from the province announced on Aug. 12.
Two one-year contracts will be created by Sechelt with the $209,500 it will be receiving under the Strengthening Communities Program, while the Town of Gibsons was awarded $190,000 for its “Everybody Needs a Home Gibsons” project.
In Sechelt, a community volunteer coordinator and local agency liaison position will be staffed at the RCMP detachment.
The detachment lobbied for that position in April as part of the 2021 municipal budget process, but council opted to apply for a grant rather than fund it from its tax base.
To help the new staffer carry out their duties, there will be a $10,000 in-kind contribution from the RCMP for planning, the development of training materials and outreach activities.
Sechelt will also be hiring a contractor to develop and deliver a project focused on homelessness. The contractor will start the process by working with community groups to review what has been done to date.
Sechelt spokesperson Julie Rogers told Coast Reporter via email: “The program will be based on our needs, so it could be anything from lobbying for more funding to house the vulnerable, to recommendations on the creation of workforce housing, to amending bylaws to encourage more rental housing. There are many facets to the housing issue on the Coast and this person will provide recommendations and a program to address them.”
As part of the “Everybody Needs a Home Gibsons” project, $70,000 will be used to contract a temporary homelessness coordinator to organize and confirm multi-year commitments on location, funding and an operator for a cold weather shelter in the town.
The coordinator will be tasked with building inter-agency and community connections as well as implementing emergency housing recommendations made to Gibsons in the 2020 Sunshine Coast Housing Needs Report.
Another $70,000 of Gibsons’ grant funding will be used to create a community de-stigmatization and resilience program. The town said in an Aug. 17 press release that this work “is desperately needed following the introduction of supportive housing to the community for the first time this spring.”
Gibsons will spend the remaining $50,000 on temporary outreach support work to assess how the unsheltered homeless population and its needs have changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
