Victoria Native Friendship Centre raising money for youth housing in the city

The Victoria Native Friend‐ ship Centre is trying to fundraise $1.3 million for a plot of land to build an af‐ fordable housing facility for Indigenous youth.

The friendship centre is working on plans for a 45-unit building it says is badly need‐ ed.

"There's a housing crisis in all parts of this province, all parts of this country, and we're not immune to that," said Ron Rice, executive direc‐ tor of the Victoria Native

Friendship Centre.

"The challenge that we're seeing is the ripple effect for these demographics. Youth transitioning out of care are highly over-represented on the streets of Victoria in the homeless population."

The plan for the project is to build one-, two-, and threebedroom units that would be rented to Indigenous youth, couples, young parents and some elders for below market rent.

"Not everybody is con‐ nected to their biological el‐ ders, so to be able to create situations where people can seek advice or even just sort of a comforting visit ... some‐ times it's just about belonging to a community," said Rice.

The friendship centre has secured nearly $1.3 million in funding from private dona‐ tions toward the $2.4 million cost of the land. The extra $200,000 raised will be used for assessments for things like parking and zoning reports that will need to be done.

Currently the centre isn't disclosing the location of land, but said it is close to down‐ town Victoria.

"We want to go and have some in-person conversa‐ tions with the neighbourhood association and some of the neighbours and sort of intro‐ duce ourselves properly be‐ fore we make any public an‐ nouncements," said Rice.

The friendship centre has two similar buildings that of‐ fer affordable housing to In‐ digenous people — Fernwood House and Siem Lelum.

Rice said they faced some challenges when opening Siem Lelum with residents worried about having social housing in the neighbour‐ hood.

"In hindsight, it would have been great for us to spend some time talking with the neighbours about the kinds of people we've been building homes for," said Rice.

But Rice said the neigh‐ bourhood association is now proud of the facility.

Even if the friendship cen‐ tre raises the money to buy the land, it will be a long time before anything could be built. The plan for the building will need to go before Victoria city council.

"Even with the most pris‐ tine of plans, it's still, you know, probably going to be a couple of years before we even break ground," said Rice.

Indigenous youth overrepresented among home‐ less

The executive director of

Threshold Housing Society, an organization that supports homeless youth in Victo‐ ria, said Indigenous youth are hugely over-represented in their services.

"It's heartbreaking," said Colin Tessier.

He said about 40 per cent of people accessing Threshold Housing Society's services are Indigenous youth. Tessier said about 150 youth are homeless on any given night in Victoria, and calls the situa‐ tion an "emergency."

He said youth who end up homeless or at risk of home‐ lessness tend to be fleeing vi‐ olence or aging out of the fos‐ ter care system without prop‐ er support.

"Focusing resources and effort on at-risk and vulnera‐ ble youth not only ends homelessness for them today … they're less likely to run in‐ to those instances in the fu‐ ture as well," said Tessier.

Tessier said Threshold Housing Society will be sup‐ porting the friendship centre in any way it can to help this project happen.

"It's wonderful to see an Indigenous organization tak‐ ing the lead and pursuing that project," he said.

"It's a bull's-eye to the need in our community."