Reconnect Youth housing

By Cheryl Jahn

Prince George Native Friendship Centre

Youth housing welcome but more needed

Feb 20, 2026 | 3:39 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – BC Housing and the Prince George Native Friendship Centre are joining forces in the interests of youth in the community. And it will be located at 1575 Queensway Avenue.

“So we’ll be locating those young people. And those are youth between the ages of 14 to 18. The other two floors of that building will be a combination of post-majority housing, which is 18 to 27 year old’s. And then we’re hoping as well that there will be some other housing,” explains Barb Ward-Burkitt, Executive Director for the Prince George Native Friendship Centre, which will be operating the facility.

The latter age group she referenced – the 18 to 27 year old’s – are often those who, as the expression goes, age out of foster care. And they are highly vulnerable.

“There certainly is a need for the 14- to 18-year- old’s, but I think that there’s such a huge need for, what we call post-majority, which is 18 to 27,” says Ward-Burkitt. “So that’s young people that are not quite ready to live independently for a number of different reasons.”

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“It’s a really big cliff to fall off of because who is mature and ready to live on their own at 18 or at 19 or even 20? And when you have had experiences that resulted in you growing up in care, there’s lots of other stuff there,” says Melissa Cailleaux, Director of Community Programs for Foundry Prince George. “And so again, people are facing, you know, mental health challenges, challenging family dynamics, substance use issues, just inability to cope. And, less opportunities to gain those life skills that you might expect when you grow up in a typical family environment.”

Both say the supports are getting better but there are plenty of holes yet to fill.

“There’s been some recognition of that cliff that young people fall off when they age out of care and into being a young adult,” says Cailleaux. “There’s recognition that more supports are needed to help people successfully make that transition. And so there has been some positive changes, more support is still needed to do that.”

Through BC Housing, the Province is providing funding of just shy of $13 million to make the units in this facility ready.

“Well, we’re hoping by April 1, you know, that we can start moving, folks. So it’s 34 units of housing, and we won’t move all 34 units. And at the same time, we’ll stagger what that move looks like. But we’re really, really hoping that we can get things going here in the next month.

The Reconnect facility on George Street currently houses 16 beds. Those youth will be moving to the Queensway facility, renamed the new Reconnect Village.