Parksville council gives B.C. Housing 180 days to find housing for motel residents

The City of Parksville is ordering B.C. Housing to bring a motel currently being used for supportive housing into compliance with zoning bylaws, and is asking the province to help find alternative shelter for the 21 residents who live there.

B.C. Housing, in partnership with Oceanside Homelessness Ecumenical Advocacy Response Team Society (OHEARTS), has been using the VIP Motel for supportive housing since October 2021, when a fire broke out at the facility that previously housed the residents. 

Parksville Mayor Ed Mayne said the problem is that the motel is zoned for tourism use.

"We found out about it by me driving by the VIP and finding that their sign was taken down and that people were living there," he said.

Last Tuesday, the city issued a compliance order for B.C. Housing, giving them 180 days — until March 2023 — to find suitable housing options for the 21 tenants who currently live at the motel. 

According to the province, failure to comply with a compliance order like this may result in enforcement measures.

The hotel has been renamed Ocean Place, and manager Kelly Morris said she's concerned the people housed there will end up living on the streets again.

"These people have had this place for a year. This has become their home now and it would be devastating to throw them back out on the street," Morris told CBC News.

A total of 87 people were identified as experiencing homelessness in the Parksville and Qualicum Beach area during a count in April 2021, more than double the 42 counted in 2018. 

Morris said Ocean Place provides people with services from Island Health and support from nurses and people with lived experience of addiction and homelessness.

"If you look at Parksville, we have nowhere else to go," she said.

"I use to be an addict myself in this town ... and I remember the love Parksville gave me. Why can't they give that back to these people here?"

Complaints from tourism industry

Mayne said the city was not consulted on putting supportive housing at the motel in the first place. Council did not approve the motel's temporary use application, which would have allowed people to stay at the motel until March 2023.

"It was one of our lower cost motels that people could come and rent at a reasonable rate during the tourist season and B.C. Housing took that off the market," Mayne told Gregor Craigie, host of the CBC's On the Island, on Tuesday.

The Parksville Qualicum Beach Tourism Association says they've received reports from neighbours that their businesses are being negatively affected.

"Crime, drug trafficking, squatting and loitering have all increased since supportive housing has been offered in the area," the association's board said in a letter to mayor and council in September.

Suggested land turned down

Earlier this week, the city said B.C. Housing was offered municipal land to build a supportive housing unit, but turned it down. 

B.C. Housing said the site that was suggested by the city was turned down because it was located outside of the city's core.

"The site was located ... far from key support services and amenities that we know people living in supportive housing require to thrive, such as health clinics, drop-in social service programs, bus routes and grocery stores.," B.C. Housing said in a statement to CBC News.

"An additional challenge with the site was that it was not serviced by water and sanitary sewers."