Samaritan House, operated by Island Crisis Care Society, is moving as part of a large plan for supportive housing in Nanaimo. (file photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Spencer Sterritt

supportive housing

Samaritan House women’s shelter moving and expanding into permanent supportive housing

Jul 14, 2020 | 5:39 PM

NANAIMO — Longstanding dreams of expansion are coming true for the Island Crisis Care Society.

The Society’s women’s shelter Samaritan House on Nicol St. is scheduled to be demolished and rebuilt as a 50-unit supportive housing complex.

Samaritan House will be moved several blocks south of Nicol St. and become a 40-bed supportive housing complex.

Society executive director Violet Hayes said it’s rewarding to be able to achieve their dream.

“We’ve struggled for so many years (at Samaritan House),” she told NanaimoNewsNOW. “It’s so tiny, three floors and the stairs are a real challenge because so many women we help have difficulty climbing stairs.”

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Hayes said hopes of expansion first began roughly eight years ago. A campaign was launched in 2018 to raise $2 million for the expansion. As the campaign was building momentum, the Society was tasked with operating the temporary housing site at 250 Terminal Ave. to handle the influx of people from Nanaimo’s tent city being closed.

The new facilities on Nicol St. will be modelled after the Society’s successful supportive housing site in Parksville.

Orca Place is Parksville is nearing its one year anniversary after opening on Corfield Rd. south.

“When we see what’s possible at Orca Place in Parksville, we’re so excited,” Hayes said. “We put a lot of effort into really thinking about the layout of the building and how it would work, the flow, the safety, the security. It’s worked well.”

Numerous pieces of a much larger housing puzzle need to fall into place before Samaritan House can be moved.

In several weeks, the women currently at the shelter will be moved into the City-owned Community Services Building on Prideaux St.

Roughly 20 women will live on the top two floors of the building until the new site is constructed in 2021.

Prideaux St. was previously bought to be used as an emergency response centre during the COVID-19 pandemic. It will also be eventually demolished and turned into supportive housing.

The province announced both projects on Monday, July 14. The housing sites are designed to offer more permanent housing for the roughly 150 people currently living in the two temporary housing sites established after Nanaimo’s tent city closed.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @SpencerSterritt