By Cheryl Jahn

housing

Wrap around help needed: Public Safety Committee

May 21, 2025 | 4:11 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The fences are in place, as the former North Star Inn is being converted into housing for the less fortunate. And housing was a hot topic at a recent Public Safety Committee meeting of Council.

“We were marching forward in that direction. Can we do better? Yes, we need to do a lot better in all aspects of housing. Seniors need housing, veterans need housing. We have an affordability issue, not just housing. So we need to solve all layers of this problem,” says Mayor Simon Yu.

It was two years the Province and the City of Prince George signed a Memorandum of Understanding that formalises their commitment to work together to better support people who are unhoused and sheltering in encampments and to help prevent encampments. And the mayor says progress has been made since then.

“It has been advanced quite a bit since the signing. BC Housing has acquired the North Star Inn and they committed to make those 93 units into supported housing,” says Mayor Yu. “In the meantime, we have completed 42 beds of transitional housing down to Third Avenue near to Lower Patricia.”

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However, Mayor Yu says more needs to happen.

“What we need is the wraparound services because of other wraparound services, these supportive housing and transitional housing units do not have the effect that they intend to. So that’s why we are and will continue to urge the provincial government to increase its capacity in terms of our wraparound service to deal with some mental health and drug addiction issues.”

Two terms ago, the City partnered with BC Housing for this complex on First Avenue. It aims to have the support services the City seeks.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities convention takes place next week in Ottawa, and Mayor Yu says housing will be a hot topic. He says this is especially true with newly minted Prime Minister Mark Carney committing billions to housing.