City of Nanaimo offers up land for homeless shelter

The City of Nanaimo is offering one of its properties to B.C. Housing as a suitable site for an immediate shelter for the homeless, as the community faces an influx of evicted tent city campers.

Mayor Bill McKay is not releasing the property’s location, but said: “We can’t see how this one would not pass muster.”

Nanaimo’s four-month-old DisconTent City must come down by Oct. 12. A B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled it has until that day to be dismantled because of safety concerns and criminal behaviour. Anyone living there after that date can be arrested.

The tent city began on cityowned industrial land and has been home to an estimated 300 people.

Early this year, Nanaimo attempted to rezone another of its properties, on Cranberry Avenue, to lease to the province. In turn, B.C. would build a $7-million, 44unit modular housing project for people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

But nearby residents felt left out of the planning process and fought the project, saying it did not belong in their family-oriented area with schools. Their concerns included the potential for drug use and crime.

Nanaimo then dropped that proposal.

McKay said the new site the city is proposing is in a different kind of area. “There are not really any neighbours close to it.”

B.C. Housing is sending staff to examine the property to determine if it is suitable, he said.

After the Cranberry Avenue plan was cancelled, city staff were asked to find potential sites in the municipality’s inventory of lands.

Seven properties were identified as suitable for various levels of social housing, McKay said.

Nanaimo has slightly more than 70 shelter beds. DisconTent City is only housing a portion of the city’s homeless population — others live in smaller camps.

McKay said staff will provide an update at Monday’s council meeting on the progress of meetings with B.C. Housing and other agencies.

Meanwhile, Amber McGrath, spokeswoman for Nanaimo’s DisconTent City, is calling on the municipality to work with people living at the encampment as it nears its end.

McGrath wants the city to work with the residents’ council, those living at the site and its organizers on a plan for the future. “We are encouraging people to come up with ideas.”