A new supportive housing building is set to open in Penticton, B.C., and organizers say the program is different than any other in the South Okanagan.
ASK Wellness Society and Oonakane Friendship Centre in partnership with BC Housing will soon open Snp̓aʔx̌tantn, also known as Healing House, at 3240 Skaha Lake Rd.
“All eyes are looking at Penticton here with the delivery of this. I think it is a really innovative and I believe will be a very effective successful model of supportive housing being offered in the community,” said ASK Wellness Society executive director Bob Hughes.
“That partnership is something that has not been done before and it’s been an incredibly insightful and appreciative experience for us to be working with an Indigenous organization to bring that cultural lens to the delivery of housing.”
BC Housing bought the Skaha Lake Road property back in 2020 with plans for a supportive housing building.
However, in 2021, city council turned down the request for a building permit, citing a need for a legal agreement between the city and BC Housing to make sure the site would be operated properly.
“The community of Penticton for a long period of time had been expressing concerns about the existing supportive housing. We have to thank the previous city council that really [stood] beside us with our proposal that we put forward to BC Housing, which was to see a complementary form of housing to the existing shelter and to low barrier supportive housing,” said Hughes.
“We needed something different; we needed some kind of housing that really was for those folks that wanted to invest in recovery, that wanted to live in an environment where substance use was not present. And we’ve been able to deliver that with this operating plan with the support from BC housing.”
Hughes went on to say that low-barrier housing has received a bad reputation over the years, but the organizations hope this new building will change the narrative.
“We’ve worked with the friendship centre, we’ve working with the RCMP as well and other stakeholders like Interior Health, to make sure that we really get this right,” he said.
“It’s also important to note we have spent time meeting with the neighbourhood, we’ve gone door to door and dropped off a fact sheet.”
The city and BC Housing later came to an agreement and the project was approved in November of 2021.
The non-profit organizations have been working since then with the city to bring this idea to life.
“This is a very, very good example of what we refer to as meaningful engagement, meaningful consultation. We were involved with a project right from the beginning. It was a collaborative process,” said Ooknakane Friendship Centre Executive Director Shauna Fox.
“The request for proposal came out. We worked on that together and throughout the whole process, have had a very strong voice at the table and making all the decisions that had to do with the build.”
The centre is recovery-focused supportive housing with 54 affordable and accessible units.
This concept is something that local advocates say the community of Penticton has been lacking.
“What we’ve seen is that we’ve really been missing that second stage type of housing environment that really supports people to maintain recovery,” Hughes continued saying, “And to really gain the skills to be able to be part of the community in the form of employment but also volunteerism.”
Snp̓aʔx̌tantn will also have a cultural component and a number of beds will be designated for Indigenous people.
“A minimum of 30 per cent of the beds will be designated for Indigenous people, urban Indigenous people of all nations, which is our mandate,” said Fox.
“Today we’re moving towards what we refer to as reconciliation. I was quite clear about how this project shows that the City of Penticton, because they are the ones that supported this, are also involved with that process of reconciliation. Meaning the consultation was there, the engagement and a true consultation process, meaningful and true.”
“We noted that there was a real absence of Indigenous organizations involved in the delivery of supportive housing,” Hughes added. “In fact, there was no organization in the entire Interior region.”
Construction is set to finish soon, and tenants are expected to move in as early as June.
Hughes added that this kind of housing couldn’t happen fast enough.
“We’ve seen this winter just the desperation of homelessness in the community. I think with inflation really hitting our communities both from the perspective of cost of living, but rents also ballooning.
“I think we just can’t fully grasp the scale of the affordable housing problem. We see the community of Penticton’s population is booming, we see the cost of living going up and we can only expect that there’s going to be even more of a problem when it comes to dealing with homelessness and housing.”
Hughes and Fox will be presenting a full summary of the program to council on Tuesday.
