The provincial government announced Friday (Feb. 23) that it will fund 758 homeless shelter units in 18 communities throughout B.C., but Squamish was not one of them.
That's because no one from the district or any local organization responded to last year's request for proposals, said Rich Coleman, Minister Responsible for Housing.
"In your community, nobody made a submission," he said. "If nobody makes a submission it's pretty hard to award anything."
Not to fear, he added, there are plenty more opportunities to address the town's homelessness problem.
"We have a bunch of other money in addition to what's been announced today that's going to go out on this type of housing," said Coleman. "If there's organizations in your community that are interested in doing something, they only need to contact your MLA who will put them in contact with BC Housing or myself."
West Vancouver-Garibaldi MLA Joan McIntyre rose in the Legislature in Victoria on Monday (Feb. 26) to voice her support of the budget's focus on a housing legacy.
"We recognize that housing issues touch us all, right from homelessness all the way to home-ownership issues," McIntyre said in the House. "Status quo is not good enough for British Columbians now, not ever, and certainly not good enough for our children and our grandchildren."
The reason no one applied for the housing funds, said Mayor Ian Sutherland, is that organizations trying to address the issue already had their hands full with the launch of the newly opened homeless drop-in centre on Third Ave. He said those same individuals are now working on establishing an overnight shelter as well.
Coleman said the municipality's commitment doesn't necessarily mean a huge financial burden.
"It's not like we're asking for everything for free, but we certainly want to see some partnerships," said Coleman. "Lots of times municipalities could look at something as simple as what's your parking requirement? Would that put savings on the project? What are your development cost charges? Do you really need to have full development cost charges when it's going to bring a community benefit? Do you have a piece of land that we could partner with you on a particular site?"
Sutherland said that although provincial funding is a "good first step," the operational aspect of such a structure - financial and logistical - would also pose a challenge.
