Connective Support Society, the agency that operates supportive housing in Prince George, said there are not many vacancies at the First Avenue site.
Chris Kinch, senior director of northern and provincial initiatives, attended an online question-and-answer session about the North Star Inn on Victoria Street.
BC Housing has purchased the site with plans to turn it into 96 supportive housing units to be operated by Connective.
During the online session, Kinch was asked about the occupancy for the 50-unit supportive housing building on First Avenue, which Connective also operates.
“What is the occupancy rate on the supportive housing on First Avenue?. There are rumours about lot of vacancies. If that is true, why is that?,” was the question asked.
Kinch responded that there are not many vacancies at this point but said it did take awhile to fill the building after it first opened.
“There was also some other pieces with that - that building also has complex care units that were reserved through another provincial program, in partnership with Northern Health and so those units did take quite a bit longer to fill,” he explained.
In June 2023 a 10-bed complex care housing facility opened within BC Housing’s 50-bed Connective Supportive Housing building.
The complex care serves people at risk of homelessness experiencing mental health and addiction challenges or brain injuries.
On-site staff provide the 10 people selected for the program with counselling and psychotherapy, self-management skills, medication and medical condition management, substance-use treatment, employment services and support with daily living.
“Our portion of those units was the first 40 and that took us approximately six to eight months. We typically will move people in in a staggered process, and that is to allow people to settle in. People to get to know the staff, the staff to get to know the residents as well so there’s a lot of steps we take to do that,” he explained.
“There's also the process that people go through. Sometimes when people are interested in housing, and then they come for a tour to it, they say, you know, this is not the right location for me,” he continued.
“So, there's a number of factors that go into that. However, we did get that host quite quickly, there was a delay on the complex care units and getting them so but they have all been filled since.”
Connective’s First Avenue supportive housing site, which is technically located at 160 Ontario St. but overlooks First Avenue, opened its doors in June 2022.
