The City of Vancouver is trying to calm fears from Marpole residents about potential tenants of a modular housing project for the homeless, which is just steps away from three schools.
Director of Homelessness Services Ethel Whitty says the city thoroughly reviews anyone looking for a unit at the site near Sir Winston Churchill Secondary, Sir Wilfrid Laurier Elementary and Ideal Mini School.
“We do an extensive interview process with people. And if there is any indication that people have any history of any kind of harming children, then of course they would not be housed in that building.”
The city and BC Housing have been granted an injunction against protesters, who have held up construction of the housing project.
A city report splits up the homeless into three categories, based on their needs.
“Really we just need to be sure that the operator has the capacity to address complex needs if those come up and that they can do that work.”
She didn’t say how many high-needs tenants would be in the 78-unit project, located on Heather and West 59th Avenue.
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Residents are concerned that people with high needs who have an extensive criminal history and are likely to re-offend could be living so close to hundreds of children.
The Caring Citizens of Vancouver Society says the city needs to consider housing only residents without high needs at the site.
“If you’re going to have a school and hundreds of small children, those are the types of tenants that should be in that facility. Not taking risks, or potential risks with small children with people that have very serious problems.”
Derek Palaschuk says the city’s presentations made no mention of Service Level 3 tenants and says it feels like the city is hiding information from them.
“If you look at the city’s presentations for the temporary housing, there’s actually no mention in their information sessions of the Service Level 3.”
City documents show some tenants could have mental health problems, a history of property damage and an extensive criminal ground with a high risk to re-offend.
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