BC Housing states no ‘significant’ delays for Merritt shelter initially expected to open in October

“Having met with BC Housing on Friday, they have confirmed they have signed a lease with the Knight’s Inn. That lease will start, I believe, September 1, but they are not anticipating being open until the end of October,” said Merritt’s CAO Cynthia White during a regular council meeting held on August 27, 2024.

But with work still needing to be completed at the site, including fencing and fire suppression upgrades, the opening has yet to occur.

“Coming into this building, they had plenty of time to go through the building and inspect it to find what was wrong and what was right,” said Mayor Mike Goetz. “BC Housing has a habit of pushing things and, unfortunately, they can’t push past this one. It’s about the safety of the people who are actually going to be in the shelter. That is why there are some shelter issues. And again, what their reasonings are are their reasonings because they don’t share much with us.”

The Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs, which oversees BC Housing, provided a written statement, stating the October opening was not officially stated.

“They gave us opening dates. They gave us move-in dates — they gave us all of that, and I guess your next question would be to BC Housing as why they haven’t met those dates because honestly we don’t know,” added Goetz.

While an apparent communication breakdown has occurred between the ministry and the city, city staff are prepared to act if the mercury plummets prior to the opening.

“There will always be a Plan B. There is absolutely no way we will allow anybody to freeze on our streets,” said Goetz. “The problem being here, and I don’t want to get into it, but when we went to the 2.5 (gram) decriminalization, that changes the way of people who can run your shelter. In the past we ran our shelters with senior volunteers, but now that decriminalization means any drug you want can be used in a facility, we can’t have untrained people — especially seniors — looking after somebody who may become violent. We have a spot that we can give, but we need them to staff it.”

Mayor Goetz sees the current issue as more downloading of provincial responsibilities onto his municipality.

“And this is a provincial issue, and why a provincial issue keeps getting pushed down to a municipal level… We will need to bring that forward like we are the ER (at the Nicola Valley Hospital) and the diking, because this needs to be a provincial issue. This has gone on long enough. This is something that isn’t new. Yesterday was rainy, we have people in every doorway getting shelter. Unacceptable.”