BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau announced Monday that, if elected, her party will back mayors from Vancouver Island calling to expand a transitional housing model.
Spearheaded in Duncan, the model, called ‘The Village,’ aims to provide safe, short-term, and transitional housing for women and families in need, including practical solutions to address the homelessness crisis.
BC Housing describes The Village in Duncan as 34 temporary sleeping units, where guests have access to daily meals, skills training, and support navigating the housing system — among other resources.
“Most of the residents currently living at The Village are expected to move to supportive housing underway in the community. Once existing residents move from The Village to White Road, these cabins will be made available to others in Duncan experiencing or at risk of homelessness through the Coordinated Access and Assessment (CAA) process,” the BC Housing website said.
Mayors from Campbell River, Duncan, Port Alberni, Nanaimo, and Victoria recently voted on the provincial government to broaden this approach at the Union of BC Municipalities annual convention in September.
“The evidence shows that The Village project in Duncan works. It has been operating for four years now, we have seen dozens and dozens of people not only come out of homelessness, but get the services that they need, get supports that they need, get access to employment, to belonging, to connection, to purpose. These are the solutions that we need in our communities,” said Furstenau, speaking outside a high school in Victoria Monday.
In comparison, she claims the BC Conservatives and BC NDP are not promising enough to address the root causes of homelessness.
“The BC Greens will tackle those root causes by ensuring that people have access to the support they need so that we can actually prevent crises from deepening. Prevention is always more cost-effective than a cure—we have the tools we need for everyone in B.C. to have a healthy, safe life in B.C.,” said Furstenau.