I was more than pleasantly surprised that there was virtually no opposition when the City of Duncan’s council decided to issue the latest temporary-use permit to allow the The Village transitional-housing project to continue on Trunk Road until Dec. 31, 2026, at its meeting on Oct. 21.
The Village, which was established in Duncan in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic and was the first of its kind in B.C., currently has 34 modular sleeping cabins for people in transition from homelessness, and wraparound services are provided 24 hours a day.
When The Village was first being considered, more than 600 people in the Trunk Road neighbourhood signed a petition against it, and many delegations came to Duncan's city council to speak in opposition to the transitional housing project at the meeting when council first decided to allow it to operate within its jurisdiction.
Shayne Williams, the executive director of the Lookout Housing and Health Society which has managed The Village from the beginning, said at that crowded and contentious council meeting that the society will be committed to cleaning and providing regular services at the site and to being responsive to the needs and concerns of the surrounding community, and the society has, by and large, kept its promise.
At the council meeting last month where the city approved the latest TUP for the project, no delegations spoke against The Village this time around and of the more than 30 emails the city received on the issue, just one was opposed.
In fact, Duncan’s director of planning and sustainability Kyle Young said in a report to council that the support services and opportunities offered onsite at The Village and in the neighbourhood have made a positive impact on the residents and the community, including improved physical and mental well-being, peer outreach, neighbourhood monitoring, improved sanitation, street clean-up, and incident response.
I’m sure there are still some in the Trunk Road area, and beyond, who still have reservations about The Village, but I think credit should be given to the Lookout Housing and Health Society, a non-profit organization with almost 50 years of experience with these types of projects, for the work they have done there for almost four years.
The Village has been deemed so successful by a number of other municipalities on Vancouver Island, including Victoria and Nanaimo, that they recently urged the province to incorporate the Duncan-made model for transitional housing as part of B.C.’s supportive-housing strategy, and for the housing model to receive continued funding from BC Housing.
Sonia Furstenau, leader of the BC Greens and the former MLA for the Cowichan Valley, also called on the province in May to immediately adopt a provincial strategy for transitional housing needs modelled after The Village.
Not only is the transitional housing model proving effective for people staying there and causing few disruptions in the neighbourhood, the costs of running it are lower than the operating costs for traditional supportive-housing buildings, and the model can be implemented much more quickly than those projects to help address the growing and acute homelessness crisis in many communities across the province.
Not surprisingly, other municipalities on Vancouver Island have recognized its success and have established similar sites, such as Victoria's Caledonia Place, Port Alberni’s Walyaqil Tiny Home Village, and the HEARTH Village being established in Campbell River.
I think one of the secrets of success at The Village is that each of the residents has their own living unit and when they open their front door in the mornings, they step outside, breath some fresh air and feel they still have some freedoms and control of their lives and, thus, are more willing to work with the support staff on hand to try and improve their situation.
Placing them in institutions that are run like hospitals or, dare I say, prisons, is not the right solution for many of our unhoused people to get them back on track in their lives.
I suspect that giving them the dignity, respect and assistance that The Village, and other similar projects, offer is a major step in dealing with the ongoing opioid and homelessness issues that are plaguing the province and the country.
