Renovations at a Nelson building that will provide 30 units of supported housing for unhoused people will not begin until early 2025, with occupancy slated for sometime in 2026.
In the meantime, BC Housing, the owner of the former North Shore Inn at 687 Highway 3A, plans to provide temporary modular housing to be placed in the parking lot while the building renovations proceed.
BC Housing is a provincial government agency that funds and develops housing for low-income people across the province.
The current seven inhabitants of the building will move into the mobile units along with 21 others chosen by Nelson CARES, which manages the building and its supportive housing program.
Both the installation of modular housing and the renovations in the building won't begin until early 2025, according to Heidi Hartman, associate vice president for supportive housing at BC Housing.
"We always want to be mindful of what we can do and what we can't do," she said. "This is one of those tricky projects where we need to move the folks out, and then once we have a vacant building, we can really expedite the renovations."
She said the temporary housing is "a rapid way to be able to open housing and get people out of the weather as soon as we can."
In an email, a BC Housing spokesperson said the agency would not disclose the cost of the building renovation because contract has not yet been awarded. The temporary modular housing will be provided and installed by Penticton-based Greyback Construction at a cost of $2,620,500.
Hartman said it has taken longer than expected for BC Housing to identify contractors as well as to procure temporary housing and arrange for its transport and installation.
The renovations to the building are significant, she said, because electrical, plumbing and safety systems including sprinkler systems need replacing.
Ron Little, chair of the board of Nelson CARES, said he could provide no additional information about the timing of the renovations.
BC Housing bought the North Shore Inn in 2022 after previously leasing it during the COVID-19 pandemic, then made it a permanent program managed by the Nelson CARES Society. At the time, the provincial government budgeted $3.9 million for both purchase and renovation.
After the city cleared the homeless encampment in front of Nelson City Hall in June, Mayor Janice Morrison stated that the answer to homelessness is housing, not encampments, and she expressed the hope that the former North Shore Inn would be available before winter sets in.
In July, the city passed a bylaw prohibiting camping in specific parks and public areas. At the time, Morrison said the city was in discussions with BC Housing trying to speed up the renovation plans.
The temporary modular housing, Hartman said, is standard housing used in work camps, with single rooms and shared kitchen and bathrooms.
Nelson CARES will provide one cold and one hot meal per day plus life skills training, employment assistance, wellness checks, an onsite 24-7 staff person, and other services, as it does currently with the seven occupants of the building.
Nelson CARES operates several sites for different demographics of residents, such as downtown’s Ward Street Place. But the former North Shore Inn is the only dedicated site for long-term housing of people experiencing or at-risk of homelessness.
