Horgan wades into Victory Church debate

Nobody except B.C.’s incumbent premier seems to want to talk about the plan for an emergency shelter in downtown Penticton that will be presented to city council again today for approval.

BC Housing and the Penticton and District Society for Community Living have proposed turning the former Victory Church at 352 Winnipeg St. into a 42-bed shelter to be used during the winter months when all other emergency beds in the city are full.

To do so, the agencies require a temporary-use permit from city council, which balked at the request two weeks ago as local politicians found the written proposal lacking in detail about security and staffing arrangements. Council instead invited representatives to make their pitch in person and field questions at today’s meeting.

PDSCL executive director Tony Laing is on the agenda, but refused to answer questions from The Herald in advance.

His organization also runs Compass House, an existing emergency shelter and supportive housing complex in the former Super 8 Motel at 1706 Main St.

Concerns surrounding Compass House, such as its impacts on nearby businesses, have dogged PDSCL’s application at the former Victory Church, which currently serves as a hygiene centre for the street population.

There are also internal concerns at Compass House, where a WorkSafeBC inspection Sept. 10 found PDSCL hadn’t completed a violent risk assessment through which to protect staff from potentially dangerous clients.

“Once these policies and procedures are developed and reviewed and they determine that they will be effective in minimizing risk, the employer must ensure that the (policies and procedures) are enforced to ensure compliance,” Eric Tupholme, an occupational safety officer for WorkSafeBC, wrote in the follow-up report, a copy of which was obtained by The Herald.

Another non-existent policy at Compass House may have contributed to the overdose death of a woman there in September

2019.

Her ex-husband told The Herald in November 2019 that she died in a locked common-area washroom after injecting a fatal dose of drugs.

Staff had previously reported to management their concerns about the washrooms being unmonitored, but nothing was done. The shelter manager told The Herald he didn’t think a policy was required to monitor the washrooms.

Compass House is owned by BC Housing, a Crown corporation that contracts PDSCL to run it.

BC Housing doesn’t have a representative on the agenda for today’s city council meeting and declined comment in advance to The Herald, citing a governmentwide policy that limits public communication during a provincial election.

But during a campaign stop Saturday in Penticton, NDP Leader John Horgan registered a vote of confidence in BC Housing and PDSCL.

“I believe BC Housing is doing extraordinary work in an extraordinary time, and we need local providers to make it all come together,” Horgan said in an interview with The Herald.

“No one knows better what’s needed in Penticton than the people in Penticton. BC Housing is an umbrella organization to make sure that we’re getting dollars into the communities.”

Horgan acknowledged issues related to homelessness, mental health and addictions are more visible than ever, but pleaded for people to be patient.

“COVID has turned our world upside down… and it’s made it even more difficult to deal with hard-to-house people. Shelter beds are no longer available because of physical distancing requirements. So the problem looks worse, I think, than it is, but I’m not dismissing it. This is critically important,” he said.

“And we need to have more compassion in our communities and understand this could be anyone. It’s our brothers, our sisters, our workmates who fall on difficult times, whether it’s because of mental health, addictions, job loss.”

The B.C. NDP claims in its platform to have built 2,800 units of supportive housing and 25,000 units of affordable housing since taking office in 2017. Those figures are about one-half and one-quarter, respectively, of the way towards 10-year targets established by the Horgan government.

He insisted all required wraparound services have been baked into the NDP’s plans.

“The modular housing we’re building in communities across

B.C. attaches people to social workers, to psychologists, to nurses, nurse practitioners,” said Horgan.

“All the help they need is there and BC Housing does a pretty good job of it, monitoring and making sure people get the help they need. Not everybody wants help; this is a challenge.”