Editor:
I read Joan Payne’s letter to the editor about homelessness with great interest. She mentions Mayor Michelle Staples of Duncan, whose goal is for everyone to have a home. As a frequent visitor to Duncan, I’ve admired their “homeless” housing projects and wished we could do the same thing here. I contacted Mayor Staples to ask her about Duncan’s most recent temporary housing project, on Trunk Road. She very generously spent almost an hour talking to me about it. The project includes 30 shipping container “homes”, plus a few bathroom units and a staffing office. All this was done for $340,000 – just over $10,000 per unit.
Mayor Staples informed me that BC Housing does not support these temporary housing projects, focusing instead on the development of “supportive housing units,” which cost more than 20 times the amount to build, take much longer to get off the ground, and are not appropriate for or wanted by at least some of the currently unhoused. Regrettably, BC Housing’s lack of support for temporary housing solutions makes it difficult for other communities to do what Duncan has done. But not impossible: the little community of Salt Spring has created a similar temporary housing project. How? By mobilizing community support, and accessing whatever funds may be available from a variety of sources. So, Sechelt could do it too. We just need to get the ball rolling.
Here are two things we can do: 1. Write Ravi Kahlon, BC Minister of Housing, at [email protected] and tell him we want a temporary housing project like the ones in Duncan and Salt Spring. Now.
And we want BC Housing to fully support these projects.
2. write the Mayor of Sechelt, John Henderson, at [email protected] and tell him we want him and his council to start taking action. Now. And he can always call Mayor Staples for help.
Jules Atkins, Sechelt
