BC Housing moves forward with supported housing projects in Nanaimo

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Monday COVID-19 update

COVID-19 cases in BC continue with an average of just over 400 new cases per day with 1236 new cases confirmed since Friday and 13 more deaths. In the Island Health Region, there were 86 new cases confirmed over the past three days, most of which continue to be on the central island. It leads with 168 active cases, followed by the south island with 63 and the north with 9. The provincial health officer says number of cases of the UK and South African variants continues to increase. So far, there have been 25 cases of the UK variant in BC including four in the Island Health region. There are 15 cases of the South African variant confirmed in the Fraser and Vancouver Coastal health regions. Dr. Bonnie Henry says the province is planning more testing to try to figure out how prevalent the variants are.

"It does change the game in some ways if it starts to take off and become dominant in the community. And I think all of us are dreading that and right now we need to take actions and figure out how to assess how many cases we have, how much of a risk it is. Similar to what Ontario did where they tested they ran a screening test and did whole-genome sequencing on a whole day’s worth of tests and we will be doing that as well so we have a better understanding of are we catching people or is there more out there that we’re missing?"
—Chief Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.

Henry says of the 40 variants of concern cases in BC, just three are currently active.

Development permits applied for

BC Housing has started the ball rolling on two supportive housing facilities it announced more than a year ago. It has applied for development permits for 285 Prideaux Street which is the site of the city-owned Community Services Building and for 702 Nicol Street, which is currently a vacant lot, owned by BC Housing. 50 supportive housing units are planned at Prideaux Street for people who are homeless or are at risk of homelessness. A four-storey facility is planned for Nicol Street with 59 supportive housing units for people requiring special care. During a public information meeting last August, the city's Manager of Development, Dale Lindsay, explained how the development permit process works.

"So a development permit process is looking in this case primarily at the form and character of the building and make sure it fits into the context of the neighbourhood. As part of that process, we do early notification to the neighbourhood and to the community. We also take the step of sending applications to neighbourhood associations so that they can provide comments and depending on the development permit, may ultimately go to council for approval."
—City of Nanaimo Manager of Development, Dale Lindsay.

Both sites are already zoned for those uses. However, the development permit application for the Nicol Street project is expected to come before council at its meeting on February the 22nd.