A Nanaimo homeless drop-in centre is in limbo. Here’s why.

Are you noticing your car insurance rate creep up even without tickets or claims?

You're not alone. That's why there's Jerry, your proactive insurance assistant.

Jerry handles the legwork by comparing quotes side by side from over 50 top insurers,

so you can confidently hit by, no spam calls, no hidden fees.

Jerry even tracks rates and alerts you when it's best to shop.

Drivers who save with Jerry could save over $1,300 a year.

Don't settle for higher rates. Download the Jerry app or visit jerry.ai slash a cast today.

This is a CBC podcast.

For the past year, if you needed somewhere to get a hot meal or a bed on a cold night in the

NIMO, the hub has been a reliable place to go. But the winter shelter and drop-in center

is closing at the end of March because some people in the neighborhood said disruptive

behavior from some shelter users made them feel unsafe. Organizers behind the space say they

have a new location in mind, but not everyone likes that spot either. And right now,

there's no timeline on when it could even open.

I'm Kathryn Marlow and this is Vancouver Island. It is a podcast and a place where the hub

is working to find its next home. On today's episode, we'll hear from the City

Councilor who is pushing to support the proposed new location and advocate who is opposed

and we'll hear about the hub's own vision for what it can grow into next.

Now, the center is run by two community organizations, the NIMO Family Life Association

and the Island Crisis Care Society. They say it has supported an average of 82 people every day

since it opened in early 2025. Now, council voted to pull its funding from the center's location

last year. That was after neighbors shared their safety concerns. But operators are hoping to

reopen in a new space with a permanent year-round shelter, a change from the old winter-only operations.

Deborah Hullins, who works with the Family Life Association, says it's desperately needed.

I mean, I don't think I can overstate how badly needed the hub is. I mean, we have our recent

enumeration data shows that at least 577 individuals experience our experiencing homelessness in

a single day in the NIMO. That's over 200 percent increase in that population. But we know that

that is a low number. That actual estimates range between 800 and 1,000 people when we consider

hidden homelessness. That is not captured in those counts. And so we have folks who have nowhere

to go during the day. They are not able to access food services, health services. They have no

safe place to sleep at night. Those people are out in our community trying to cope with the realities

of their life on the street. And that's interfering with, you know, communities well-being,

business well-being, you know, it's all contributing to this sense that, you know, our communities

are not safe. When people have a place to go, when they are able to access services at those

place, case management services, housing services, healthcare services, the likelihood that those

folks are going to leave the street successfully and permanently grows exponentially. We have seen

the success in the hub. And so, you know, we have the proven stats and outcomes. And now we want

that 24-7 service because we know it works. Nadebra and the hub's operators have a new location

in mind. It's next to NIMO City Hall in a building owned by the province. And it already houses

an overdose prevention site operated by Island Health. They're applying for just under $4 million

of funding from BC Housing for the new center. And since BC Housing is part of the province,

the operators don't technically need municipal support. But Debra says it could really help

for both getting grassroots community buy-in and extra leverage with the province.

We will still be putting in the proposal without council support, of course, but

council support means everything. So the hub's operators have asked council to write a letter of

support to go with their proposal to BC Housing. When council discussed that request at this week's

meeting, they decided to ask Island Health what they think about the potential location.

We'll hear from a council a bit later who thinks that that might help get the new center open.

But it's clear they will hear some pushback from local residents. They've raised concern about

multiple social services, like the already controversial overdose prevention site or OPS,

being located so close to each other downtown. Kevin Shaw is within a NIMO Area Public Safety

Association. Well, I think everyone in NIMO and throughout British Columbia wants to see people

who are on the street with mental health or addiction issues. We want to see them get into

treatment and get back into the real living world, you know. And that might not be the right place

next to City Hall because we've already had problems with the overdose prevention site there.

And people gathering outside definitely after hours. And the City Hall staff have been very

worried. They've been attacked and their vehicles broken into. And they were going to put a fence in,

a number of months ago. And I said basically, and a lot of other NIMO residents, well, if you're

going to build a fence around City Hall in your parking lot, you've better build one around the

rest of the businesses in the downtown and the residents. And so where it's at right now, the hub,

there have been a lot of problems there. And the residents and businesses in that area have said

no more. You have to get it out of our neighborhood because it was causing lots of problems, i.e. fights,

break ins, fires, people getting assaulted and attacked. So if you're just moving it now,

albeit a few blocks to City Hall, you're going to have even more problems than it was that people

were saying with the overdose prevention site there because you're concentrating services

in the downtown core. You've got to spread things out. You can't have everything in one area

because then it concentrates too many problems in that area. While NIMO City Council has been mostly

positive about the need for the hub, there hasn't been unanimous support for the new proposed location.

Mayor Leonard Kroge says he won't endorse the project until there's more opportunity for community

engagement. Look, the staff have worked with various folks and island health and others to try and

find a location that might be suitable. Private landlords, by and large, will not and do not wish to

rent on a short-term basis for the establishment of a hub. The province doesn't own land presently

that I'm aware of that would be suitable. I think it's going to be a very long-term proposition.

I would be very surprised if we can get another hub site by fall, but miracles happen and you've

got to have some faith and hope. But again, wherever it is, it's not going to be particularly popular.

How do you decide what the priority is when even the official homelessness count puts it at 577 people

and we think it's closer to 1,000? Sometimes you feel like you're just treading water on these issues.

We know that the facility is needed, but again, where is it going to be and is the province prepared

to pay for it?

So that's an Animo Mayor Leonard Kroge. But City Councilor Hillary Eastmere is more optimistic.

She's the one who brought forward the motion for the city to get in touch with island health over

the proposed project and most of her fellow councilor members agreed. She's hoping that can get some

momentum going on the hub's proposal. There's a formal ask now going to come as a result of our

motion and I really need to, we have to investigate this because the situation's urgent. The hub is

closing where we have been looking for months. Landlords aren't keen on opening something like this.

It's hard to find an appropriate location. And I agree that we do need this first model.

Ideally, we would have a couple of these across the city, but for now, this could be a workable option.

One of the concerns, of course, is that it is in a place where there are other services like the OPS.

One of my colleagues spoke with Nanimo Mayor Leonard Kroge about this today. He said that he

doesn't think that island health will want to host a shelter on this site. Here's a bit of what he

had to say. The site is owned by the province, by island health, and indications before

have been that they weren't interested in hosting it. And I think there would be great objection

in the neighborhood as well. What do you make of that, Hillary?

Maybe. I don't know. I think it's worth asking. Honestly, I think that anywhere you try to site

something like this, there may be some pushback, but there's not a lot of residences around here.

We would need to carefully manage the site if it were to become a drop in hub and shelter,

because of the proximity to businesses. And yes, there's some apartments nearby in City Hall

and the MLA's office, like I said. But I do think it's workable and certainly worth exploring.

And we've had one answer in the past, and then you get a different answer in the future.

And just with a number of partners who are keen to support and work on this project,

I really think that we can make something happen.

The city is going to ask island health what they think about it. In the meantime,

the social service providers behind this proposal are seeking city support for the application

to BC housing for the funding for the shelter. Do you have a sense of when the decision might come

down from the city about whether to say yes, we're on board with this project?

I'm not sure, but ultimately this really isn't up to us. This is on BC housing and it's on the

province. They are responsible for housing and also health care. At the end of the day, what we're

talking about here are services that people desperately need, like basic humanity here.

And so I'm really glad to hear that there's a willingness from the MLA to suggest this,

and I hope there's a willingness from island health to seriously consider this proposal.

And the city, I think, we're just keen to see something come through because we,

many of us are on the table, recognize how dire the situation is. And, you know, basic services,

like food in the NIMO are really hard to access for people in the street right now.

There's not even a consistent place that people can go for meals and having a sort of dispersed

model where you're delivering food to like encampments or people in the street, like it's just,

it's just not really workable. So, you know, a while ago, I moved a motion that we actually

write to the housing minister to request funding for a purpose-built drop-in hub. And really,

that is ideally what we need. We need the province to help us to fund a purpose-built location.

If this building isn't right, then, you know, let's build a different thing that's,

you know, actually built to purpose in a location. There's lots of empty parking lots around where we could

create a proper drop-in hub with bathrooms, a shower service. Maybe we could even have housing

on top for folks who are ready to move in. But, you know, we have to get creative. And I think co-locating

services in a building that's already providing frontline healthcare and services, I think,

makes a lot of sense. In the meantime, whatever the plans are for the future, the existing hub

is set to close at the end of the month. After that, what services will there be for people who are

homeless in Anima? I mean, yeah, good question. We have some outreach teams doing some work. We've

got the Salvation Army that is serving their clients, but they're also in the process of a major

renovation. Until their dining room opens, you know, they're only able to offer a limited

food service, but thank goodness that their building will be coming online soon-ish.

But yeah, there's some huge gaps in the services we're able to offer people. And thankfully,

we have opened like almost like over 150 units of temporary support of housing in the last

year throughout Nanaimo. So, you know, I'm glad that people are able to move from the street

indoors, and we're seeing some success there. But the hub had a really big part of that success,

too, because they're, you know, getting people on the BC Housing by-name list and identifying

individuals who are ready to take that step indoors. So, you know, we're trying hard to say yes to

all of the BC Housing proposals that come through and buy land and make it work, but yeah,

there's some huge gaps, and it's a really tough situation for people who are on the street right

now. Now, the hub's organizers say they do have a backup location in mind if their proposed site

doesn't come through, but it is one that would need significant renovations. And there is still

so much in the works about this. Island Health is yet to provide comment on the site,

and the hub operators are still in the process of applying for funding from BC Housing.

Oh, that's it for this week's episode. Now, before you press pause or you press play on whatever

you are listening to next, are you following this Is Vancouver Island? If not, why not hit that

follow button right now? That means that our episodes will automatically show up in your timeline,

and you don't have to remember to go looking for us. Thanks to my colleagues Marie Zidler and

Claire Palmer for their help with this week's episode and to our producer, Emma Jean. Thank you

for listening. I'm Catherine Marlo, and I'll see you on Saturday with our Politics Edition.

For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.