Local officials in Port Moody say they were blindsided after finding out, almost two months after the fact, that provincial funding for a transitional women’s housing project is being withheld.
The transitional housing project was designed to create up to 60 units for women and children escaping violence.
Originally included as part of a larger development by Beedie Living near the Moody Centre SkyTrain station, ground was expected to be broken within the year, but without the promised provincial funding, there’s no knowing when or if it’ll get built.
“They claim to want supportive housing on the one hand, but then when it comes to actually providing the funding for it, which is their job, they’re not willing to do it,” Port Moody City Coun. Kyla Knowles told CityNews.
“I haven’t heard a word from the province, other than kind of politician-style denials that, ‘It’s not a cancellation, it’s just a delay,’ but I think we all know that it’s a lot more than a delay.”
She adds that they were the last to know, losing precious time to pivot as a result.
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“What was most frustrating to a lot of us on council is that this has been known since March, and we were not informed, either by our MLA, by the province, or by BC Housing. We had to find out through the operator, who was informed before we were. That’s two months of lost time; we could have been working already with our MP, we could have been looking at other operators, we could have been looking at other sources of finance, at grants.”
Port Moody Mayor Meghan Lahti says that she met with federal officials on Monday morning in the hopes of finding another way forward.
“It’s extremely disappointing, to say the least. We need to start becoming creative, because this issue isn’t isolated to this one project; this issue is actually something that is affecting the entire province across the board. Funding for housing has really dried up. So, what are our options? Because it’s still a priority, and we still need to build this housing, so how are we going to meet the need?”
A spokesperson for BC Housing, the crown corporation which would have owned the building, explained that due to fiscal constraints, funding is being released at a different pace than originally planned, and funding for this project has thus been deferred to a later date.
However, no date was provided.
“We are literally having to deal with hundreds of calls every year, and having to tell these women that there’s no place for them,” said Fran McDougall, executive director, Act 2 Child & Family Services
Her organization was selected to run the prospective building, and she says the need for this housing is immense.
“There just aren’t alternatives for them, so they’re having to pack up their children, go to other communities, so this project still has to stay in the forefront of importance.”