Clock ticking on Nanaimo’s tent city

The clock is ticking on Nanaimo’s tent city, where local and provincial governments and health and social agencies are trying to find ways to provide housing and services to homeless residents.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ordered that the tent city shut down by Oct. 12.

“We are going to rely heavily on B.C. Housing to understand what it looks like to de-camp, to disassemble a place like this,” Mayor Bill McKay said.

“They have had experience with it. And we are certainly looking to them for whatever help they can give us.”

An estimated 300 people are living at 1 Port Dr. in Nanaimo. It’s not known how many are truly homeless, have family to go to or are from out of town, McKay said.

Nanaimo is giving the province a list of properties that might be suitable for some kind of housing and services to serve those people, he said.

A conference call was held Tuesday with Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Selina Robinson and staff.

“We need help with understanding what sort of resources they are going to provide us with and what their responsibilities are going to be and what ours are going to be,” McKay said.

“We are a little confused and we need to get clarity.”

Housing is a provincial responsibility, McKay noted.

A statement from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing said it’s still in the process of determining shelter and housing options with the city, and will share information as it becomes available.

The first stakeholders meeting took place at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, said McKay, who anticipates there will be five or six more meetings this week.

The faith-based community will be contacted to see if there’s a possibility of providing shelter housing, he said.