A new “Community Connections Hub” announced by the B.C. government last March as part of its Downtown Eastside response plan and designed to help coordinate service delivery, has yet to open and appears to be delayed.
The facility at 341 Gore Avenue, detailed in a March 26, 2023 news release ahead of the Hastings Street decampment, was to be a “centralized place to access referrals and information about housing and services.”
B.C. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon told Global News last April that the hub would open soon at Orange Hall to connect people with housing and mental health supports.
Global News has made repeated requests since that interview for a tour of the new taxpayer-funded facility.
Last July, BC Housing said the Orange Hall hub, which will bring together a multidisciplinary team of provincial and social support workers, an on-site clinic with health professionals, community integration specialists and local non-profits to deliver many needs of residents in one place, still wasn’t ready for touring.
“BC Housing is currently working through considerations such as occupational health and safety details, renovation costs and partner agreements before the space will be ready for operations,” said the July 31, 2023 email.
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In November, BC Housing said community integration specialist workers from the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction had been operating from Orange Hall since June, while work continued toward implementing the HUB pilot project.
“A tour of the HUB pilot project will be possible once this work is completed, expected in 2024,” stated the Nov. 2, 2023 email.
When Global News visited the BC Housing office at the 341 Gore site Thursday, staff said we could not see the community hub because construction was underway.
Downtown Eastside resident Sassy Hardt said she would expect such a facility to be up and running within three to five months of being announced.
“Last March, I mean we’re 12 months down the road, Hardt told Global News in an interview. “Why didn’t they pick a building that was already constructed?”
Upstairs at Orange Hall, S.U.C.C.E.S.S. provides 27 units of renovated and self-contained housing for people with disabilities and those who would otherwise be facing homelessness, including Ian M. Collette.
The longtime DTES resident, 73, who broke his neck in a severe workplace accident, said he moved into Orange Hall more than four years ago.
“If I didn’t move in here, I’d be on the street,” Collette told Global News in an interview.
The social service agency is looking forward to having a new neighbour in the centralized hub project, developed by the province through BC Housing.
“That will actually give people a place to check in and get access to information,” S.U.C.C.E.S.S. CEO Queenie Choo said in an April 2023 interview. “It’s like a community hub where they don’t have to travel, it’s just on the ground floor.”
Almost one year after the ground floor hub was announced, it doesn’t appear to be open to the public.
“There’s a lot of work happening at that site,” B.C.’s housing minister said Thursday when asked how the Community Connections Hub was working out.
Ravi Kahlon also said it was the first time he had heard about Global News’ request for a tour.
“I certainly can follow up with the team. Our goal, again, with all the facilities is to make sure that they’re at the top standard. And in some cases, we know there’s work to do.”
Kahlon’s ministry told Global News Thursday it is still looking into the logistics of a site tour.
“A hub would have been very helpful to a lot of people,” said Hardt, who is employed with Watari Counseling & Support Services Society.
“We could have been sending them, we could have been referring them to this.”