Construction has skyrocketed in Nanaimo over recent years with the city forced into some changes in order to keep up with the demand. (Kyle Ireland/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Water Cooler: Building permits in Nanaimo & housing the homeless

Apr 3, 2021 | 11:51 AM

NANAIMO — The Water Cooler is NanaimoNewsNOW’s letters to the editor-style segment, featuring conversations about the news in Nanaimo and Oceanside.

This week’s feature focuses on complex housing challenges for the city’s homeless and work by the City of Nanaimo in green-lighting more building and construction in the region.

Jeff B., Nanaimo: I applaud the city for addressing the problems in the building department. These changes are long overdue and can’t come soon enough. This article is understating the facts. As a local builder I can say that the wait times and problems are much more than the article would lead the reader to believe.

The management and staff are doing all they can but there is great dysfunction. Our mayor acknowledged these problems and promised to address them in a Builders meeting during his campaign but since the election its done nothing but get worse.

NanaimoNewsNOW: The pandemic put a damper on what was a bumper year for development in 2019. Nanaimo approved a record $445 million worth of development in 2019 and even despite COVID-19 related domino effects in 2020, an above-average $243 million was approved.

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The record year in 2019 was a massive jump in a short space of time for the city. Through the first six months of the year, over $300 million in development was in process which was three times greater than all of 2018.

“We knew there was potential for some very strong activity. To actually see many of those development permits and rezonings convert to building permits has probably caught us a little big off guard,” Dale Lindsay, community development director, told NanaimoNewsNOW in July 2019.

Nanaimo is in desperate need for residential development, particularly rental inventory. Not all of the projects which come across the City’s plate will be for multi-family residential development but all new housing in the region helps.

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Jo-Anne S., Nanaimo: So the answer is to move these people back into the community? Where? These people are not in a community, except what is known as the homeless.

Such a sad state. The system that is shattering due to Covid-19, and other factors, has no where for these people to live. Can the city not take a leadership role and house these people? We are all on the verge of homelessness and the system must help instead of hinder.

NanaimoNewsNOW: A lot of movement has occurred for Nanaimo’s growing homeless population over recent months.

On Dec. 4, 2020, an encampment along Wesley St. was closed by the city, citing a fire safety order issued Oct. 15. This event dispursed between 60 and 100 people from the site with a lucky few able to secure immediate shelter in limited spaces throughout the city.

In the weeks following the closure, city crews also erected fencing around outdoor shelters in Bowen Park before the most recent development of enclosing the fountain at Port Place.

During a rally on Dec. 8, 2020 in support of the former Wesley St. residents, Christine Barelli, an outreach worker with lived experience on the streets, told NanaimoNewsNOW there needed to be options from the City and province.

“They are human beings who deserve to be treated like human beings and they’re not.”

Nanaimo mayor Leonard Krog held firm on his position during a town hall on Monday, Dec. 7. He said the issue is provincial in nature and not something the City of Nanaimo has jurisdiction in.

“We do not provide mental health care, we do not provide addiction services, we do not provide social assistance, we do not provide health care.”

A 60-bed navigation centre, which provides housing and services to help transition people off the streets, was promised for the area by the province in September 2020 and scheduled to open in spring 2021.

To date, no site has been announced for the facility and a memorandum of understanding between Island Health and BC Housing is still in development.

Join the conversation. Submit your letter to NanaimoNewsNOW and be included on The Water Cooler, our letters to the editor feature.

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