If it takes a village to build a community, the Aboriginal Housing Society of Prince George is well on its way to achieving its ultimate goal.
Construction is now complete for a 35-unit supportive housing complex near the centre of the city to serve the complex needs of Indigenous seniors and elders at risk of being homeless.
By December, tenants will be moving into their new homes in the three-storey Phase 3 development at 1919 – 17th Ave., and they will soon become part of an Indigenous residential community unlike any other in the city’s history.
The three-storey elders complex is in close vicinity to an already-completed 50-unit townhouse development (Phase 1), which opened to tenants in June, and a former church that has been converted into a community centre/office space for the Aboriginal Housing Society.
It was a proud day Thursday for society president and chair Ruby Baptiste and her board members, who teamed up with BC Housing and the Prince George Native Friendship Centre to invite their partners in the project to join with civic leaders and the media at the public unveiling of the new facility.
In her speech to the gathering, Baptiste spoke her committee’s nervous reluctance to take on the daunting task of creating an urban aboriginal residential community. The society has raised several million dollars to make it happen, backed by an $11.7 million combined investment from BC Housing, the Ministry of Child and Family Development and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
“For starters, when we purchased the property, it wasn’t just the cost of a house, it was a few acres and a few million dollars – taking the risk was huge, and look at what it’s grown into,” said Baptiste. “So how did we find the money to do that? We took some of our older units and sold some of those, and Integris Credit Union and BC Housing worked really hard with us and we started doing community consultations with the UNBC planning department and we did a mock project of what it would take to build it from scratch.
“The board members are volunteers and most of us were hesitant because we knew it would be a lot of work and a lot of money we had to raise as well. But we had some members on our board who said, ‘We need to do this, we need to take this risk for the community,’ and I’m glad we eventually followed them because it all worked out in the end.”
The Prince George Native Friendship Centre will oversee the elder housing unit and will also operate the daycare facility, built as an extension to the community centre. It will provide daycare for as many as 40 toddlers and school-aged children.
“I think the impact is huge,” said Barb Ward -Burkitt, the Native Friendship Centre’s chief executive officer. “We’ll be able to work with 35 elders who are vulnerable and in many cases marginalized and in many cases if they are homeless or at the risk of being homeless they may have mental health issues, addiction issues and health issues that may not be addressed.
“Us having the ability to provide supportive kind of resources to them, not only in the facility itself, but the Friendship Centre has a huge umbrella of services that they’ll be able to access as well. The impact will be directly to those 35 individuals and to their families as well. If they’re not connected to family we’re hoping we can do that in a individual way or by hosting some group family dinners. That sense of family is so important.”
By giving them homes and a sense of belonging to a community, the tenants will have caring people on hand, willing to help them try to overcome the traumas that cripple their lives. All the elder tenants who will live in the apartment complex will have access to social workers trained in dealing with addictions and mental health disorders and an on-site nursing station next to the dining room will by staffed 24 hours a day. Continental breakfasts and suppers will be provided to the tenants, cooked and served in a kitchen staffed by Canadian Mental Health Association.
“When people are homeless they might be on the street, in the tent cities or couch surfing and they don’t have that safe place they can trust is theirs and everything is going to be well for them,” said Ward-Burkitt. “When we think of our Indigenous elders, many of them have the ongoing trauma from residential schools, perhaps themselves or their parents have been in residential schools.
“The facility itself will be one-stop, there’s going to be a hair salon there, so having that food security and all of these health supports in place and just having people around them, they’ll be in relationships built of trust and safety. This is an indication of organizations in our community, especially Indigenous organizations, to work to address the issues of homelessness.”
The daycare centre is slated to open Nov. 1. Ward-Burkitt is hoping to connect some of the elders who are well enough to serve as volunteers looking after the kids, where they can teach them their language and pass on their history and traditions as Indigenous people. The cost of daycare will be minimal. Priority will be given to families already part of the Aboriginal Housing Society and if there any available seats the community at large can apply.
Construction has now begun on Phase 2 of the village – a 57-unit development, to provide one-to-three bedroom unit housing for singles, students and families. When complete, sometime in 2024, the 6.8 acre site will have a total of 200 affordable rental units.
Acting Mayor Murry Krause, who is not running for re-election to an eighth term, was proud of his opportunity to speak at Thursday’s open house in his last official function as a councillor. He’s been a vocal advocate of the project and its intent to bring people of all ages together to share their native culture and traditions in a safe environment since the village concept was first proposed in 2016.
“This was a dream of mine as well, so I’ve been sort of involved and keeping track since the beginning, and this is amazing,” Krause said. “This is exactly what we need in the city. We need specialized housing. It was originally envisioned as a village, so there will be a lot of ancillary services here and that’s exciting. Intergenerational activity and interaction will keep everybody healthy. It couldn’t be better planned.”
