It was meant to be an innovative attempt to tackle Vancouver’s homeless crisis, but with fall weather approaching there are few signs that a twice-delayed tiny shelter village is close to opening.
Vancouver’s previous city council approved the pilot project for the tiny shelters in February 2022, allocating $1.5 million to the two-year initiative.
Each 100-square-foot unit is meant to come equipped with heat and air conditioning, power, space for two people and a lock on the door.
The village was initially slated to open last fall, but was delayed to spring 2023 — then delayed again, with just six of the planned 10 units ready to occupy.
“Knowing there are these systems out there and knowing that they’re starting to be deployed in other municipalities around B.C., it does frustrate me a little bit that we see folks still living rough in our city,” Vancouver Coun. Pete Fry, who voted for the pilot project, told Global News.
“It’s the opposite of rapid. We want to see a rapid solution to an immediate problem while we are waiting to build these long-range plans, including permanent housing.”
The project at 875 Terminal Ave., once complete, will be operated by the Lu’Ma Native Housing Society, which also runs a nearby shelter.
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BC Housing directed questions about the project to the City of Vancouver.
In a statement, the city said the project was facing delays due to “additions to scope of the work, site condition challenges to overcome and the hybrid model of modular and on-site construction that have required increased coordination to operationalize the Tiny Shelter structures.”
The original timeline to build the units, it said, was estimated based on studies of other tiny shelters, which later proved insufficient to meet the city’s own safety standards for things like electrical work and fire alarms.
The units also required extra work for placement and moisture proofing on uneven concrete, while construction hours have been limited so as not to disrupt the impacts of the neighbourhing shelter, the city said.
Homeless advocate Guy Felicella called the delays in getting the facility up and running “unbelievable.”
“The tiny home I think is great in that its got air conditioning and heat, it’s got a door that locks so there’s safety, there’s security there. You can build a sense of community there that can be supportive for people,” he said.
“Yet the timeframe is years, and it becomes defeating for people who are on the streets with no shelter — homelessness is really a mentally and physically punishing condition, and its addressed by building homes, so the city just needs to cut the red tape, get these things built.”
Fry said that while the pilot project was a city initiative, the responsibility for housing still lies with the provincial government.
He said deeper partnerships with the provincial and federal governments could help break through barriers when it comes to red tape and on funding for similar projects.
The results, he said, could be life-changing.
“The key to this kind of approach is that it’s getting folks in the door, quite literally getting them indoors with a locking door, and then they’re able to stabilize, they’re able to get whatever it is they need,” he said.
“Maybe health care, maybe ID, maybe a job, maybe get on a list for permanent housing — those are all opportunities that you really struggle with when you’re living in a tent.”
The City of Vancouver says it hopes to have the pilot village active by some time this fall.