Friendship Lodge Meeting a Heated Discussion

By 250 News

A full house greeted  reps from the City, Native Friendship Centre and  B.C. Housing at the public meeting at Ron Brent Elementary School

 There were 209 people on hand for this evening’s public meeting on the proposed “Friendship Lodge”, the transitional  home planned for the site that used to be the home of the Backpacker Motel on Queensway.  That turnout is nearly double the number of people who showed up for the two open houses held to gather public opinion on the University Heights development which involved a plan for 674 hectares and housing for nearly 11 thousand people.

Things didn’t get off to a good start as there had been no provision for a microphone, and the first speaker couldn’t be heard by the crowd, leading the City’s Development Services  Dan Milburn to step in and provide a bigger booming voice.

The site has been purchased, the facility operator chosen, the site has been cleared, advertising is underway to fill a position for this project, the design has been done (it’s a three storey) for the  “apartment “ building of 29 one bedroom self contained apartments . Given those points, there should be no surprise that area residents think this is a “done deal”

“This is not a done deal” says Development Services Dan Milburn.  The full- house crowd didn’t buy it, and groaned. “This is a rezoning process and your elected officials will have a  public  hearing  before making a decision on if this is, or isn’t,  the right  place for a  facility such as this.”

The plan would handle adults over the age of 18 who are homeless, have drug or mental health issues. 

When it comes to site selection, Milburn says the Official Community Plan “helped guide us to find a site” 

 B.C. Housing’s  Louise Elms says “We bought the Backpacker site thinking the process would go through. Can we sell the property? Yes.  If this process doesn’t go through can we sell it?  Yes.” 

(at right  one woman  presents her view,  photo Opinion250 staff)

The residents  had  plenty of questions:

Q.What do you think this is going to do to our property values having a homeless shelter in the neighbourhood?

A.This is not a homeless shelter, a shelter is a place you go at night, these are homes, and this is a transitional home.

Q. What does eleven months do for a person who is addicted or has mental issues, these issues are not solved in eleven months, where’s your continuity to this program?

A  It can be up to two years, but two years can be a long enough tine to transition them.

Q.  I know why most of us are here, I saw 6 people doing crack cocaine here, our neighbourhood has the prostitutes and the pimps, crack dealers and the johns, the security is ludicrous.  One caretaker and two staff members is no kind of way to handle this.

A. (Milburn) Is this going to encourage drug use and the problems in this community and that is a good question.

Q.It is a shame to destroy our neighbourhood, we are not against helping people but not there, put it downtown. I don’t care if they want to break into our cars at work, but not where I’m sleeping good golly!”

Q.    What other sites were examined?

A One of the proponents looked at another site which was in the downtown area, there was also a site on 4^th avenue that was not for sale and we were not able to negotiate a price.

Q Will the residents be allowed to use crack or engage in prostitution while they live here?

A. It is clearly not the intent for this facility to have these people continue to engage in that kind of activity

Q Is there a limit on the number of people who can live there?

A. There are 29 single bedroom apartment so there could be 29, or if there are couples there could be as many as 58,

Q.  Why would you put a building with this purpose in an area with this kind of reputation ( drugs prostitution etc.) why are taking these people you are trying to help and putting them into an area where they are going to fail?

A. There are not that many locations where there is suitable transportation.

Dan Milburn interjected when the crowd started grumbling “I’m hearing you people don’t live in this neighbourhood and you don’t care, well these people up here (the experts) care a great deal about all the communities in this city.” Milburn also directed the crowd tolook at the map  that had been pasted on the back wall, saying it  shows the sites in other parts of the City which offer adult services. 

Some of the sites on the map include Rainbow Park Lodge,  Hospice House,  and the downtown  overnight shelters.

When Opinion250 asked Milburn if it was fair to include the Hospice House on such a map,  Dan Milburn replied, "Well how do we know those people in Hospice House  are not pedophiles?" 

There were also plenty of questions about drug use. 

Barb Ward-Burkitt told the group “We do not promote drug use, if there are behaviours happening there that are deemed inappropriate, then that will be dealt with on an individual basis.”

On resident stood up to say poverty is not pretty, “I don’t want to live in a community that says we don’t want to help people.  I like it here.  I don’t want people to get upset, I want people to understand what these people (Native Friendship Centre and BC Housing) are trying to do.” He turned to Barb Ward-Burkitt and asked her to tell the gathering about the good work the Prince George Native Friendship centre is doing “because the word is just not getting out.”

Barb Ward-Burkitt  informed the crowd, that if the process goes ahead, they are prepared to work with the community. 

“Enough of the B.S.” yelled one resident, “Take that message back to City Council,  we’ve had enough! We don’t want this G… D….  thing in our neighbourhood.”

Yet another resident  said, “When  you are down on your luck  and you want to get a leg up,  you need an address, and this will help  Instead of saying not in my backyard, say thank God we can help.”

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