Choices shelter set to close at year end

The Choices transitional homeless shelter in View Royal has until December to find homes for its residents and close down.

“The plan is no new residents after Sept. 15. Then we’ll have until the end of the December to house everyone,” said Grant McKenzie from Our Place Society, which operates Choices. The facility, in the former youth jail, is owned by the province.

View Royal city council voted Tuesday night to extend the oneyear, temporary-use permit for the shelter at 94 Talcott Rd. It opened last March as emergency housing for people living in a tent city in downtown Victoria.

McKenzie said the shelter is at capacity with 50 residents and has a wait-list. At least 50 people staying there have found long-term housing and several have sought addictions treatment. Four current residents are working.

The shelter is part of a $26-million provincial investment in housing spurred by the homeless camp, which had about 100 people staying there before it was broken up last summer.

The government purchased several buildings and provided funding for temporary housing. Our Place’s other temporary shelter, My Place, located in the former Boys and Girls Club on Yates Street, is scheduled to close at the end of May.

“Our Place was never in the business of housing, but this was a response to an emergency,” said McKenzie, adding the organization is putting together plans to pitch a therapeutic community at the Choices facility. “We want to get into something that is more life-transforming, to help people out of the cycle of jail to the streets and back.”

B.C. Housing said it is considering future options for the site.

Mayor David Screech said several people came to council to voice their concerns about Choices, but many others are in support of it, especially given the lack of affordable housing across the region.

“There were a mix of opinions, but, ultimately, we all feel the housing issue is a regional one and we need to do our part,” Screech said. “It is a problem that the West Shore does not have any [other] shelter beds.”