Penticton council has had information since March 2 detailing the supportive housing audit they requested.
BC Housing sent a letter outlining the draft scope of the audit, and confirming that they would use a third party for it, with timing and any further details coming through discussion between council and BC Housing.
The letter happened to be sent the same day council made their decision regarding not extending the permit for the Victory Church shelter.
鈥淯nfortunately the same people who would be working on that in cooperation with Penticton council are now the ones responding to the crisis that has been created by Penticton council by attempting to close the shelter,鈥� Minister David Eby told the Western News on Thursday. 鈥淪o that work is on hold.鈥�
The letter laid out that BC Housing would have the third party handle the data collection and the analysis, and what information they鈥檇 be gathering.
The specific impacts the research would be focused on would be the impacts to homelessness, housing stability, quality of life, community acceptance, the health of residents and the use of emergency health care services.
The surveying would be done with the three supportive housing developments in the community: Fairhaven, Compass Court and Burdock House.
The data would be collected through multiple surveys, including one for residents, one for the housing providers, one for community advisory committees, representatives from the community and local organizations and finally a survey of BC Housing鈥檚 internal administrative data sources. The latter would provide information such as resident demographics and support needs.
The third-party audit would also study the data related to the number of ambulance calls, overdoses, emergency room visits, hospital stays and police calls if that data can be provided by their respective organizations.
However, the audit and city council鈥檚 request won鈥檛 be considered until the ongoing issue of the Victory Church shelter is resolved.
鈥淭he accelerated review and what we鈥檝e proposed is not going ahead until we figure out what鈥檚 happening,鈥� said Eby.
On March 8, BC Housing sent council a letter outlining how they could either review their decision to reject the permit extension, or council鈥檚 decision would be overridden by the province.
To report a typo, email: editor@pentictonwesternnews.com.
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