Housing ministry looks elsewhere as Penticton denies tiny homes for homeless

Penticton city council and staff are heading back to the drawing board after a council decision not to issue a permit for a homeless housing project and as a result losing provincial government funding.

The housing ministry will now looks to other cities that might work with the proposal rather than challenge it.

“Many other municipalities have expressed interest in partnering with the Province to bring these types of homes and services to their communities, so we will be taking the next steps towards working with those other communities,” Housing Minister Christine Boyle said in a statement to iNFOnews.ca.

Mayor Julius Bloomfield warned council of the consequences. He said Penticton would land at the “bottom of the list” if the BC Housing project was denied. On Dec. 2, council defeated it in a 5-2 vote.

Bloomfield said the “disappointing” decision followed months of lobbying for the tiny homes for up to 50 homeless people that would have allowed for the controversial Fairview encampment to be cleared out.

He spent hundreds of hours lobbying for the project and city staff spent thousands hours working both internally and with BC Housing. Instead of adding new beds and moving people on from shelter, Penticton remains at status quo.

“Staff have been working flat out on this. We don’t have a plan B,” Bloomfield told iNFOnews.ca.

Mirroring similar tiny homes in Kelowna built with funding from its Heart and Hearth program, BC Housing sought a three-year permit to run the project on city-owned land. The model has been used to transition more than 100 people into stable housing, including in Kelowna, Boyle said.

“Not only is this a setback for the people who are vulnerable and struggling in Penticton and are in dire need of this housing – it is also difficult to comprehend as this was a city-led initiative to bring the HEARTH program to the region,” she said.

She said Penticton had specifically lobbied for the initiative as a way to address the “entrenched” encampment, which is along the channel at the intersection of Highway 97 and Fairview Road.

Councillors opposed to the Dartmouth Road tiny homes, including Jason Reynen and Campbell Watt, were largely concerned with the inclusion of a safe drug consumption site. They argued the program should restrict drug use entirely.

Meanwhile, the contentious proposal drew hundreds of public responses, split between those for and against it. Many opposed were concerned about crime and open drug use often associated with the homeless population.

According to Bloomfield, council’s efforts to find the “perfect” solution only delayed the decision and left city hall with no direction to deal with the large Fairview encampment.

He added that because the majority of the tiny homes’ likely residents would have been drug users, BC Housing wouldn’t restrict drug use for fear it would the homes would be unfilled. Instead, it would have provided a safe overdose prevention service, which is common for many BC Housing facilities.

“Council needs to rely on the data and the reports from the experts, but… when it comes to this kind of question, everybody becomes an expert in psychiatric care,” Bloomfield said. “In a majority decision, you respect it and move on with trying to find something else that works, and we’re not in that stage yet.”

It’s not clear where BC Housing and the province will look to spend the money yet, but Penticton has lost its chance at an option to legally clear out the Fairview encampment.

“With BC Housing, it’s about letting them see what we’re doing and keeping the conversations going. Yes, I’m sure we’ve lost some goodwill with the province, but they’re pragmatic as well,” Bloomfield said.

“What we focus on is the people out there on the street and how we can help get them back into society, because that’s beneficial for everybody. If we keep that as our focus… and as long as BC Housing is at the table with us, maybe we’ll come up with a different plan.”