Petition to BC Housing, City of Courtenay Mayor and Council

Our neighbourhood group, 925 Braidwood Neighbours, a grass-roots organization of 350-plus residents, workers, and business owners/operators, agrees that supportive housing enriches the lives of the marginalized in our community.

Supportive housing residents needs resources that teaches them new life skills that will help them to become stable, productive and active members of the community where we all live.

Our group is concerned that by putting a combined year-round Connect homeless centre and cold-weather warming shelter next to vulnerable residents in supportive housing will jeopardize their chances to fully integrate as valuable members of our community.  The influence of some of the people using the shelter could seriously hinder their recovery and be detrimental to their pursuit of life skills needed to live a more productive life.

Also, other concerns we have is in placing the combined shelters along busy Ryan Road 1 - The safety of shelter users as well as drivers/motorists who use this provincial road and 2 - Lack of supportive services/agencies for these individuals which are located across the river in the downtown Courtenay area.

We urge you to reconsider re-zoning in allowing for supportive housing and shelter-warming centres on the same 925 Braidwood Road property. Instead, re-zoning just for supportive housing mirrors our neighbourhood’s character.

925 Braidwood Neighbours.