Prince George, B.C. – Elizabeth Fry Housing is now certified as Crime Free Multi-Housing communities in Prince George as part of a Community Policing initiative.

 

The Crime Free Multi- Housing Program requires apartment and townhouse complex managers, owners and renters to complete a three step certification process that provides tools to keep illegal and nuisance activity away from the rental property.

 

These tools include adequate lighting, trimming shrubs so that people cannot hide behind them, peep holes in doors, and secondary locks such as an entrance / exit from the garage. 

 

Claudette Plante, EFRY Housing Manager and Diane Sears, Community Policing Coordinator (Photo L-R) emphasize a key to the certification is the education program that is provided to the tenants, “We have to teach everyone what suspicious behavior to look for and what to do when they are presented with a situation. This goes beyond a neighbourhood watch program and really instills a sense of safety and community.”

 

Rainbow Village offers 40 units and Irwin Place houses 51 units for a range of residents.  Plante, says the housing is not just for low income, “We try to offer a community where no one is labeled, no one knows who is subsidized and who is not. The housing communities are geared towards income with the rental charges being 30 percent of the household income with a market cap.”

 

Tenants in the communities include students, seniors, couples and those with mobility challenges. 4 of the units at Rainbow Village and 6 of the units at Irwin Place are wheelchair accessible.

 

Prince George Community Policing currently has two more apartment buildings working towards certification and is striving to have more apartment and townhouse complexes complete the program.    The next workshop will be offered in late February.