Visitors to a Wednesday, Feb. 27 open house for a complex care facility on McGill Crescent in College Heights expressed relief that the facility won’t treat addictions but voiced concerns about communication and a desire for more certainty from the project’s partners.
First announced last August, the 10-unit facility at 3177 McGill Crescent is a joint venture between Northern Health, Community Living BC (CLBC), and BC Housing.
Representatives from all three organizations were present inside a ballroom at the downtown Ramada hotel to display poster boards outlining details of the project and answer visitors’ questions.
A petition created by a neighbourhood resident opposed to the project has garnered 518 signatures since Aug. 24.
The petition's text stated that while the project is needed in the city, "building it in the middle of a neighbourhood with many small children and next to a park is clearly not a good choice. The huge potential for increased crime and human conflict is also too great and therefore must not happen.”
Signatories expressed concern that the facility would bring drug- and mental health-related issues to a neighbourhood with young families. Others cited its proximity to École College Heights Elementary School, about 1.1 kilometres to the east.
The posters indicated that tenants of the facility would be individuals 19 years or older, of any gender, dealing with both mental health issues and developmental disabilities — but not addiction.
They also stated the location was chosen by BC Housing and Northern Health, in consultation with the City of Prince George, because it is within walking distance to amenities, has access to bus services and is near greenspaces.
Heidi Hartman, associate vice-president of supportive housing and homelessness at BC Housing, said her organization’s role is to guide the facility’s design and later find a non-profit operator to manage its day-to-day operations.
“Great progress has been made,” Hartman said of the project’s development. “We’re in the design stage. We’re sharing some details today, including information on the trees that will be cut and remain as stumps to ensure the ground has good rainwater dispersal.”
She described the facility as a “unique Prince George response.”
“It’s not a cookie-cutter ‘this is how we did it in Vancouver’ response,” Hartman said. “This project was identified as a need for Prince George, and we’re excited to respond specifically to what the needs of Prince George are.”
Discussing the location, Hartman said project partners are working to ensure tenants have everything they need for safety, both for themselves and the surrounding community.
Hartman acknowledged that a communications blackout during last fall’s provincial election had limited responsiveness, though she noted that beyond the open house, a smaller dialogue event had been held the previous evening.
While Hartman did not confirm whether more public engagement would take place, she said further opportunities would be explored once the facility’s operator is chosen.
Jody Stewart, CLBC’s director of regional operations for northern and Thompson-Cariboo regions, noted that no facility in Prince George combines developmental disability and mental health supports with semi-independent living under one roof.
“If it’s successful,” she said, “this model could be tried in other B.C. communities.”
CLBC will provide funding for developmental disability services, though it won’t provide direct services. This funding is ongoing with no time limit.
While tenants could eventually transition to other housing, there is no set length of stay.
“They could live here for a lifetime if they want to,” Stewart said.
Stewart said many open house visitors were concerned the facility would cater to people with addictions.
“Our goal is not to have people living with addiction in this program,” she said. “Sometimes addictions develop or re-emerge, but this is not a program designed to support people with addictions. We have other services in the community for that.”
If addiction issues arise with tenants, she said they would be referred to other services.
Graham Hall, executive lead for mental health and substance use at Northern Health, confirmed the facility will not treat addictions.
“Individuals at this location will be eligible for CLBC services, so they’ll meet their criteria and will have a diagnosed mental health concern,” Hall said.
He added that individuals with intellectual or learning disabilities and co-occurring mental health issues require a unique approach.
Unlike CLBC, Northern Health will send clinical staff to work at the facility.
Hall also said the facility would be the first of its kind in the province.
Success in this facility, Hall explained, would be determined by the individual.
“I can see successes where clients develop independent living skills and transition to market rentals, with a lower level of support,” he said. “We also see success in clients who remain in the program but form good community relationships, develop skills, and achieve successes that wouldn’t have been possible without this support.”
With staff on-site 24/7, Hall said the facility will be responsive to clients’ issues, not just reactive, and communication channels will be set up to address community concerns.
Brittany, a McGill Crescent resident who asked that her last name not be published, said the open house had addressed most of her concerns.
She first learned of the project through a Facebook group and word of mouth and said the information available online was vague. Her biggest concern was that the facility would treat addictions.
“I wish the information had been made clear from the start, rather than leaving us to rely on our own research,” she said.
Bill Mackenzie, another nearby resident, said he only learned of the open house 30 minutes before it began, from a neighbour handing out pamphlets.
“It was a total surprise to me that we were even having a meeting tonight,” he said. “It just didn’t feel very well shared.”
Mackenzie said he would have preferred a town hall format to allow for group questions and answers. He also said he would feel more confident about the facility’s focus if the operator was already chosen.
“I don’t think anyone’s against housing for people who need it,” he said. “We all have family who may need support. It’s about what we’re introducing into the neighbourhood.”
Peter Hills, another area resident, expressed concerns about how the project partners have communicated with the community.
Hills noted that at a town hall-style meeting last fall, BC Housing did not send a representative, and a Northern Health representative was evasive about how clinical staff would be recruited.
When the facility was first announced, the accompanying media release referred to similar facilities on First Avenue, Ontario Street, and Queensway, leading Hills to believe the facility would cater to people with addictions.
“There is one reference to addiction in that Aug. 7 release, in a quote from former mental health and addictions minister Jennifer Whiteside,” Hills said. She had said that complex-care housing is “designed to help people with complex mental health and addiction challenges and housing instability.”
While the shift toward focusing on developmental disabilities and mental health has addressed his concern, Hills said he’s “at the point where I don’t necessarily trust everything that’s being fed to us now because they still haven’t engaged the community.”
He said he would like to see another engagement session with decision-makers from all project partners present.
Hartman said updates on the project would be available online at letstalkhousingbc.ca/prince-george-3177-mcgill-crescent. The page includes answers to frequently asked questions and copies of the poster boards from the Feb. 26 open house.
