One of the shelters built by Phillip Frederickson, Brad Gustafson, and volunteers. It, among the other shelters, has received a stop work notice

By Tommy Osborne

Tiny Homes

City of Prince George issues stop work notice on community-built tiny homes

Nov 10, 2023 | 5:09 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The City of Prince George has issued a stop work notice for tiny homes being built in Moccasin Flats to battle the impending cold weather. The tiny home project has been lead by Phillip Frederickson and Brad Gustafson, and close to $6000 has been raised through a gofundme.

Mayor Simon Yu explained the notice was given due to the shelters not being up to code.

“Various bylaw issues have to be implemented before we let the building continue, because there is a potential liability for the city because the land itself is owned by the city. So if a building was outside of code and people got hurt, then there’s some liability issue involved,” Yu explained.

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The Stop Work Notice attached to one of the shelters

A Do Not Occupy notice from the City. This was pinned alongside all Stop Work Notices

Yu added while it’s the City’s responsibility to enforce and implement bylaws, he applauds the efforts of the volunteers and agrees that our homeless population needs somewhere warm to stay. He is in favour of the tiny home idea, but says the safety of our community has to be a priority. Given that he would like to see tiny homes built, he hopes to work with the volunteer group, rather than against them.

“Definitely I would like to collaborate with him (Frederickson) in the effort, being a structural engineer myself, I can certainly contribute my technical know-how to help him. In the days ahead I’m looking forward to a conversation with him, see if we can do something together with B.C. housing to address this particular issue,” Yu said.

Upon hearing the news that the City is willing to collaborate with the group, Frederickson said he was looking forward to future meetings to make sure our homeless population is prepared for the winter.

“I really hope we can work together and actually solve this problem, because sleeping in tents is not a possibility through the winter,” Frederickson said.

While initially receiving the stop work notices was disappointing and frustrating, Frederickson knows the City also wants to help our homeless population, so he hopes to have productive conversations to move the project further.

“We want the same things, I think theres just a lot of bureaucracy and politics in between, and we’re doing the best we can to navigate that,” he said.

Beyond getting these tiny homes up to standard, there are plenty of other things that could happen, as Mayor Yu hopes the Provinicial Government steps in to provide code certified tiny homes for our community. Pointing out that the City of Kelowna received 60 tiny homes from the government, both Mayor Yu and Frederickson would like to see the province step in to provide even more support.