A Trail city councillor wants a permanent site for a supportive housing project found before the current council’s term ends in 2026.
Paul Butler made the comment following council’s unanimous decision Monday to approve a temporary homeless shelter on Riverside Avenue.
Council also agreed to Butler’s suggestion that the permit be for one year rather than three, although a renewal is possible.
“My decision to put forward a shortened timeline took into account the very valuable feedback we received from local residents, who may be impacted by our decision and the obvious humanitarian need that was staring our community directly in the face,” he said.
Butler said he and his colleagues will work “diligently” with BC Housing to move the existing downtown shelter to the new location and continue “an aggressive search for a permanent site and solution to the housing crisis in Trail.”
Butler said council will also lobby the provincial and federal governments for new addiction treatment facilities in the Kootenays.
He said he doesn’t want the shelter’s fate to become a “legacy project” for a future council.
“This file’s been on the desk at city hall for the last four years, going into five,” he said. “It’s been on mine since I started as a councillor. I want to shorten timelines so this was not going to impact the next council. If we’d given a three-year extension, it would have put us in the middle of the next election cycle, which I wasn’t prepared to do.”
Butler said the shelter has taken up a lot of council time and he feels they have the ability, time, and knowledge to put it to bed and move on to other things.
The new shelter’s temporary use permit will take effect upon occupancy being approved. BC Housing indicated it doesn’t expect the new shelter to be ready until the end of this year or early 2024.
The 25-bed shelter, to be built of modular units, will go near the old bridge and take the place of the current 18-bed downtown shelter. However, it won’t necessarily have the same operator, as BC Housing has issued a request for proposals.
Council also intends to ask the provincial government to allow operations to continue at the existing La Nina shelter once its temporary permit runs out at the end of September. Butler noted it’s very unusual for a municipality to make such a request, as it cedes decision-making authority.
The previous council granted the present shelter a one-year extension while alternatives were sought. The temporary permits are necessary because Trail’s official community plan makes no provision for a homeless shelter.
