While Maple Ridge MLAs last year said no to converting the Quality Inn into a 60-unit supportive housing complex, Langley is now looking at doing the same thing.
At a public meeting at the end of the month, B.C. Housing and Stepping Stone Community Services will explain their proposal to turn the building beside Home Depot in Langley into a place where people can have their own rooms yet be supported by a variety of programs to ensure they don’t fall back into homelessness.
B.C. Housing proposed the same thing for the Quality Inn on Lougheed Highway in Maple Ridge in 2016, only to back out of the deal at the last moment after 7,000 people signed a petition and Liberal MLAs Doug Bing and Marc Dalton opposed the idea.
Jessie Stretch, who was on the citizens committee that advised the MLAs on a location for a homeless shelter, still doesn’t like the Quality Inn as a location for supportive housing in Maple Ridge.
Stretch said people thought that the service provider would be Rain City Housing, which operated the temporary homeless shelter, opposed by many.
“And that’s just not acceptable. If you’re building something and you’re going to be giving people a hand up and getting them back on their feet … I’m quite open minded about where you’re going to put that.”
But if it’s just a facility for open drug use, “who wants that anywhere in their community?”
Stretch said he wants to help homeless people, especially those with an addiction or mental illness.
“Let’s tackle the addiction, let’s tackle the mental wellness. Sometimes the help you need doesn’t look like the help you want,” he said.
“There’s been tons of harm reduction and it doesn’t work. It hasn’t worked in the Downtown Eastside. It doesn’t work to just throw a box around these people and say the problem’s fixed. It’s ineffective.”
Housing First, one of the principles followed by B.C. Housing, is an approach that believes in ensuring people are given housing, then supported to overcome their addictions and mental health issues.
Maple Ridge Coun. Gordy Robson also still opposes converting the Quality Inn, now the Econo Lodge, to supportive housing.
“I hope that doesn’t happen here. We can’t afford to lose anything as far as hotel accommodation.”
The provincial government recently announced that it plans on opening 2,000 modular units in B.C. in the next two years, with 1,000 of those expected to open early in the new year.
But so far, there have been no announcements for Maple Ridge, despite a meeting between council and the provincial government.
Maple Ridge-Mission MLA Bob D’Eith said B.C. Housing is working closely with Maple Ridge and service providers “to develop both short and longer-term solutions.”
He said modular housing is one option that’s been discussed with the city. Funding will also ensure that people get the support they need to move into more permanent housing.
“This is a shorter term solution which would allow us to move quickly to address the pressing need, which includes the people living in the existing camp at St. Anne.”
But B.C. Housing is also continuing to work with the city around additional potential sites, “and will engage the community around those next steps.”
Robson said B.C. Housing will consult the community on what type of shelter it is proposing before a location is chosen.