By Spencer Sterritt

After injunction, Nanaimo wonders where 300+ homeless people will go

Sep 21, 2018 | 6:01 PM

NANAIMO — With downtown Nanaimo tent city residents forced to vacate the camp within 21 days, many are wondering where the hundreds of homeless people are supposed to go.

It was a question asked repeatedly in comments on NanaimoNewsNOW‘s story about the injunction order on Friday.

“There is a housing crisis…have you tried to find a place over this last year?” one woman wrote.

“So the people that leave that property are to go where?” another said. “Unless they stay and decide to go to jail, they still have no option for low income housing, or detox, or rehab, or a mental health housing complex.”

Similar comments have flooded the NanaimoNewsNOW newsroom since Discontent City first opened five months ago.

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In that time, no concrete solutions were presented by either BC Housing, the ministry of municipal affairs and housing, or the City of Nanaimo. The only direct action was opening the Nanaimo extreme cold weather shelter in the summer to provide another 32 beds for the homeless.

“The fact we’ve been here for four months just displays there isn’t suitable accommodation,” tent city resident Melissa Burkhart said at a press conference on Friday. “There’s under 75 shelter beds in the City of Nanaimo to house 300 homeless people.”

After five months of discussions, there’s still little word on immediate solutions for Nanaimo.

On Friday, Nanaimo mayor Bill McKay said the City is looking forward to innovative solutions from BC Housing and the ministry of municipal affairs and housing.

“BC Housing can work with others, such as Island Health, to provide all the wraparound services they claim are available to people who find themselves in this situation. We’re looking forward to their solutions.”

However, in an emailed statement the ministry said “The City of Nanaimo will be taking the lead on the transition” while they work on the ground to provide support for tent city residents.

Both groups mentioned a need to move on from the failure to secure a 44-unit affordable housing complex in south Nanaimo earlier this year. Yet repeated statements from the ministry reference the City’s decision to turn down the site and try to find another. Minister Selina Robinson and also premier John Horgan have mentioned the decision by the City in unprompted comments during the summer.

Mayor McKay called the comments from Horgan and Robinson “very unproductive.”

As Nanaimo’s tent city residents consider their next moves, a second camp further down island is growing roots in a provincial park.

The Saanich camp, which was established for roughly four months, was given a week to evict their site and since then have bounced around southern Vancouver Island. Roughly 30 people arrived at Goldstream Provincial Park, forcing the closure of the park to everyone.

By Friday evening many people online suggested Nanaimo’s homeless campers could join the Goldstream camp, though there’s no official plans as of yet.

As the population of Discontent City grew, so did the price tag for a drop-in service building proposed in the wake of Nanaimo’s first homeless protest on the lawn of City Hall. A July staff report said the site, which is expected to offer health supports and counselling, would cost at least $650,000 a year to staff and manage.

Regarding long-term solutions, a 10-year plan to end homelessness, as well as a long-term vision for affordable housing, were both endorsed by Nanaimo city council on Monday, Sept. 17.