Kamloops councillor revives effort to impose ‘recovery’ for planned supportive housing

A Kamloops city councillor is calling for a planned supportive housing site to restrict drug use for its residents.

It comes months after the housing ministry told council the facility will focus on “harm reduction”, rather than enforcing abstinence. Despite failed efforts to influence the North Kamloops project, councillor Kelly Hall is proposing council lobby the province once more.

The low-barrier site, at the corner of Leigh Road and Fortune Drive “disregards community-based feedback,” his notice of motion to city council reads.

Council will debate the motion on Tuesday, Dec. 9, several months after approving BC Housing’s rezoning application for the 54-unit project. The four-story supportive housing site will replace homes that once stood there.

In the lead-up to the rezoning vote, neighbourhood residents complained about the plan and called for it to house a recovery-focused program, while restricting drug use for its residents.

Several councillors appeared to favour that approach, but couldn’t vote on what BC Housing builds on the property based on its eventual clientele.

“If we started making decisions based on what programs go in certain places, that is ripe for a lawsuit,” councillor Mike O’Reilly said at the time.

According to Hall’s notice of motion, council sent multiple letters to the Minister of Housing to lobby for recovery-focused housing. The minister refused.

While council has yet to debate whether to continue the lobbying effort, it’s not dissimilar to Penticton’s recent refusal to a BC Housing-led tiny home project.

It would have housed up to 50 residents, while including a safe consumption site for drug users who live there.

Last week, Penticton city council voted against the project after lobbying the province for it over months.

Housing Minister Christine Boyle said she was “disappointed,” adding that it was “difficult to comprehend” the same Penticton council that proposed the project would vote it down. Instead, her ministry is now looking for a different community to get the funds.

For Kamloops, BC Housing isn’t relying on city council to approve the project, so it’s unlikely the funding will be pulled. It is, however, yet another example of BC cities attempting to influence how the Crown agency tasked with housing the homeless approaches local projects.