The community will have their say Tuesday (April 4) when B.C. Housing’s application for a further one-year extension of the temporary use permit for Choices Transitional Home goes to public hearing in View Royal.
Our Place Society has been operating the facility for B.C. Housing since March 2016 at the former youth correction centre at 94 Talcott Rd. The society has been holding regular monthly meetings over the past year to hear any grievances that residents or others may have about Choices, its clients and any effects on the surrounding neighbourhood.
After hearing a staff report on the application March 21, View Royal councillors had some pointed suggestions for the operators, most of which related to security, inside the facility and out.
Coun. Ron Mattson reiterated concerns voiced by West Shore RCMP about the amount of police resources being expended on incidents at Choices, and that shelter staff are inadequately trained to handle behavioural flareups among residents. Mattson hoped some solution could be included in any temporary use permit extension.
“It’d be good to have the RCMP only being called when laws are being broken, not called to take care of people acting up,” he said.
Coun. John Rogers echoed the sentiment, adding that he would expect B.C. Housing and Our Place to address such issues in their plan for the coming year. Coun. Aaron Weisgerber said tighter internal security should be mandatory if the plan was to move forward and that he’d like to see a more structured transitional plan for moving into permanent housing.
Deane Strongitharm of Cityspaces Consulting, who made the application on behalf of B.C. Housing, pointed out that the operation of Choices is not a long-term solution to housing the homeless. He said the goal is to permanently house the current 50 residents by the end of this year. He added that more than 40 former residents at Choices have been placed in housing to date.
The public hearing is part of the April 4 council meeting at View Royal town hall, 45 View Royal Ave., starting at 7 p.m.
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