With an action plan created, a transition team will now guide the further work needed to curb homelessness in Nanaimo and hopefully prevent further tent cities. (Spencer Sterritt/NanaimoNewsNOW

By Spencer Sterritt

NEXT STEPS

New committee or task force to coordinate tackling change of homelessness in Nanaimo

Feb 11, 2021 | 7:05 AM

NANAIMO — The health and housing task force, chaired by Nanaimo councillors and including community representatives, has wrapped up.

The task force held its last meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 10. It operated since May 2019 with the goal of creating the Health and Housing Action Plan, which would guide efforts to coordinate services and bring senior government funding into Nanaimo to tackle the always-growing homelessness crisis.

“All of our hearts are in the right place, that we want to see a solution which works in Nanaimo,” councillor and task force chair Don Bonner said at the end of Wednesday’s meeting. “I’m quite positive the work we’ve done here will be that solution.

A draft Health and Housing Action Plan is now ready for council approval and next steps.

The plan includes obvious goals such as creating more affordable housing but also developing further strategies and increasing ways those in need can find services.

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It focuses on six priority areas, starting with coordinating the many non-profits and systems already in place in Nanaimo to ensure gaps in services are filled.

A Systems Planning Organization, which would tackle the work, currently doesn’t exist.

Lisa Bhopalsingh, manager of community planning with the City, said the City wouldn’t establish such an organization but would “facilitate the conversations to get it to establish it.”

City staff expect the conversations would include a working group with the same structure as the task force to provide input presented to city council in a report about what the organization would look like.

The organization, as currently envisioned in the action plan, would be in charge of guiding aspects of the action plan, creating further strategies and launching community access sites in libraries, community centres and recreation facilities so those in need can easily find where their needs can be addressed.

Jason Harrison, executive director of the Nanaimo branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association, said he’d like to see an element of higher level oversight involved to ensure work is actually done.

“Going through some of my own digging and research and looking back at the plan from 2008, which is still a relevant plan today, one of the things which was really missing was that oversight and implementation. Very few things were ever actually implemented.”

With the task force finished, a transition group will now be formed to guide the creation of a organization to implement the action plan.

“These steps are going to be crucial,” coun. Erin Hemmens said. “We’ve done all of this work to say “This is what we want to do.’ Now we have to figure out how we’re going to do this. We don’t want to rush this, nor do we want this to stall.”

A report was originally due back before council by March 31 about the transition group, but a deadline was ultimately removed by task force members.

The total cost of implementing the recommendations within the action plan is $65.5 million over five years.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @SpencerSterritt