The group that pounded the pavement looking for a place to put a supportive housing complex and shelter is presenting its report again, this time to the new New Democrats now representing the area.
The report, completed in May, is already outdated because the preferred site is no longer on the market.
The group had selected a lot on McKay Avenue in the Albion Industrial Area as the top spot for such a shelter, but it’s since been sold, said Christine Bickle, chair of the committee.
“We thought it was a reasonable site. No site was going to be ideal. There would have been push back, no matter where it was,” she added.
The citizens advisory commitee had chosen 15 possible locations for a housing complex. The committee also stipulated it could not be a low-barrier operation, which allowed drug use on the premises, nor could it be downtown.
Another site was the 0.8-acre-sized property on St. Anne Avenue, now being used for the Anita Place Tent City.
“It was one of the sites we thought about. It was on our list,” Bickle said.
But one concern was that the property was too small, and too close to Cliff Avenue, where a tent city sprang up in 2015.
Bickle, who led the opposition to one of the previous sites proposed, at 21375 Lougheed Hwy., which would have been next to her place of work, said she joined the committee to help find solutions, instead of just opposing something.
She said the group had minimal direction from then Liberal MLAs Doug Bing and Marc Dalton, who named the committee earlier this year.
“We were flying blind,” Bickle said.
The MLAs didn’t participate in the committee’s half-dozen meetings and let it do its work, which Bickle appreciated.
But the group had no idea what kind or size of facility for which it was trying to find a location.
“The number of beds wasn’t even described to us. We were just told to find a site.”
Maple Ridge-Mission MLA Bob D’Eith and Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows MLA Lisa Beare, both of the NDP, were to meet the committee Monday night.
Bickle still wanted the new MLAs to consider the other locations for the site on the list, although many were found unsuitable.
There is still $15 million available from B.C. Housing to build the facility.
The committee that was intended to be a positive thing for the community and its work is still valid, she added.
Bickle said that the incoming MLAs should include a few members of the committee on any new group that will try to find a site.
D’Eith said he wants the group to have its say and provide some background.
“This is an entire community of people and we have to take in everybody’s opinion,” he added.
“I see this all of this as symptoms of much larger issues that we have to address.”