Tiny home fire creates urgency for City of Prince George

“Once we’ve set up the transitional homes, then we perhaps will enforce the bylaw for the entire city,” Yu said.

Beyond the shelter itself, Yu is also working with the government and several agencies to bring other services too.

“Hopefully we will have some other program to be instituted there. For example, to deal with drug addiction, mental health. But these are still being negotiated right now with various other government agencies to see what detailed program we can put together,” Yu said.

Yu knows the volunteers will continue to build tiny homes, and he says he appreciates the dedication and efforts of these volunteers to bring a temporary solution to the issue while the City gets its transitional housing built. He understands that the volunteers feel the government doesn’t do enough to support the homeless so they took the issue into their own hands, but hopes once the transitional housing is built Prince George may be able to move beyond the need for tiny homes that are not built to code.

“Until they see physically with their own eyes that transitional housing has been set up, that the program installed there by the government works for the people who need the services, I think they will just continue their volunteerism and get things done the way they feel that perhaps that should be the way to help the people,” Yu said.

Yu expressed a strong interest to work with the volunteers, and co-lead of the tiny home project Brad Gustafson was very happy to hear that, as he hopes the community and government can work together to address the homelessness crisis.

“It’s very encouraging to hear that he’s working with us and not against us. I just want to say thank you very much to Mayor Simon Yu,” Gustafson said.

Gustafson agrees that the transitional housing is a great step forward to address the issue, but like Mayor Yu, knows it isn’t the only thing that needs to be done.

“I think it’s part of the part of the solution, but not the whole solution. The homes is just one small part of the problem, right? It’s also medical care. It’s also mental health, it’s rehab and all of those things, those surrounding services that come with homelessness,” he said.

As for whether or not the tiny home project would end once transitional housing is set up, Gustafson thinks it could continue, saying the need will most likely still be there.

“We will absolutely support any and all shelters, we support the hotels or the motels that have been purchased. That’s a wonderful thing. It’s just not the full solution. You’re always going to have a segment of the population that are just not going to want to follow those rules. And so I think we’re going to need to seriously consider the option of having a tiny home population almost at all times. It’s almost a guarantee. It’s a multifaceted problem and it’s always going to need a multifaceted solution,” he said.

For the immediate future, we can expect the tiny homes to continue being built while the City tries to speed up its transitional housing efforts.

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by Tommy Osborne

Tiny home fire creates urgency for City of Prince George

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