The province’s housing minister didn’t mince words on Thursday regarding its fight with Penticton city council over a controversial winter shelter in the downtown core.
In an interview with Global News, David Eby said its goal is to prevent homelessness encampments, and that it has “the ability to continue to operate the shelter and ignore local bylaws and land-use roles in doing so.”
The shelter is Ground Zero in a sudden battle between the province and Penticton council, which flatly rejected a request from BC Housing to extend a temporary-use permit for the 42-bed shelter on Winnipeg Street.
The site was granted the permit in the fall, but the permit expires on April 1. Recently, BC Housing asked if the permit could be extended for another year, to which council unanimously said no.
In turn, that sparked a sharp response from BC Housing, with CEO Shayne Ramsay effectively telling council to co-operate or be prepared to have the province override its decision.
In the BC Housing letter, Ramsay said “we respectfully ask that the mayor and council reconsider its rejection of BC Housing’s application to renew the (temporary-use permit) and permit the shelter to continue operating on the property until March 31, 2022.
“We believe that proceeding in this manner will ensure that both the needs of the people experiencing homelessness in Penticton, and the mutual desires of the city council of Penticton and the province to avoid the creation of a homelessness encampment in Penticton, can be met.”
Global News reached out to the city regarding BC Housing’s letter that government will ride roughshod over local politics.
In a short email, the city told Global News “as requested by the province, once council has completed a review of its options, a reply letter will be provided back to Mr. Ramsay.”
While Eby says the province holds the fight-ending hammer, he notes “to my mind, that’s not the best approach. The best approach is a cooperative approach with the local government because that will ensure that whatever is ultimately built in terms of supportive housing meets the needs as best as possible for the people of Penticton.
“So we’ve advised the council of our intentions to proceed in this direction, but if we don’t hear from them (on) Monday to voluntarily work with us on housing, then we’re just going to have to go ahead, keep operating the shelter and build the supportive housing to move people into it.”
Asked why the province is fighting council’s decision, Eby said “from my perspective, as minister for housing, it’s critically important that we not have more encampments in our province, and it was hard for me to imagine a scenario where 42 people who are in the shelter would be evicted into the nearest park, making a total of 160 people homeless in Penticton, and we would end up with an encampment.
“The goal is to keep people sheltered and build supportive housing to move them into it and close that shelter.”
Eby continued, saying “it’s critically important to my mind for both the people who are in the shelter and the quality of life in Penticton, generally – looking at other cities that have encampments – to make sure that there’s a seamless transition for the folks in the shelter into supportive housing.”
The minister was asked if B.C. had overridden local government decisions before, and he said yes.
“Previously in Maple Ridge, we have used this authority,” said Eby. “The province has used it before in Nanaimo; I’m not sure of all the circumstances around it, but sometimes cities do invite us in to use this authority because they want us to move more quickly than their local processes will allow, so there have been examples of that as well.
“But in terms of over the objections of a local city, I think Maple Ridge is probably the most recent example. It is quite a rare thing.”
Asked if government is prepared to face a legal challenge, Eby said “the best advice we have is that we have a very strong case to make, that this, in fact, is a provincial operation, but it’s not as clear as I’d like it to be.”
“We don’t own the site, BC Housing is not directly operating it; they’re operating it through a third-party, non-profit organization. And so, because of that, it is vulnerable potentially to a court challenge. There is always a risk when you go to court about an outcome that you’re not hoping for.
“And in that case, we’d be in a real jam. And I know that what we’ve seen before is unhappy neighbours challenging these kinds of orders. That’s what happened in Nanaimo; they challenged it, but unsuccessfully.”
Eby said, “if it were challenged successfully, and Penticton council got their wish and the 42 people were moved out to the local park, our best efforts would be around minimizing the amount of time that people were outside, ensuring as best we could community safety and the safety of the people who are living in the local park, and trying to move forward from there.”
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