Powell River and Bella Coola to receive funding for complex-care housing

Powell River and Bella Coola will both receive funding from the B.C. government to help build housing for complex mental-health and substance-use challenges.

Powell River will be building 20 new complex-care housing spaces while Bella Coola will create 12 new complex-care housing spaces.

“Complex-care housing is a groundbreaking approach for people with overlapping mental-health and substance-use challenges, and traumatic and acquired brain injury,” said Sheila Malcolmson, minister of mental health and addictions.

“These new complex-care housing spaces … will provide support for people right in their homes to help break the cycle of homelessness and foster stability.”

The community at Lift Community Services in Powell River is absolutely incredible. Volunteering in community garden, kitchen makes people feel included & valuable. OPS has an inhalation space & is connected to a nurse & treatment pathways.

Grateful to the staff, volunteers here. pic.twitter.com/ZnwWrQdSx7

— Sheila Malcolmson (@s_malcolmson) May 20, 2022

The complex-care housing spaces in Powell River will be located in several central sites and will be in partnership with the Tla’amin Nation, Lift Community Services and Vancouver Coastal Health.

“Mental-health and substance-use issues are challenges that affect us all, directly and indirectly,” said Marlane Christensen, health director with Tla’amin Nation. “Providing stability and complex-care housing services to those most in need serves the individual, their family and the entire community. We need to walk this road together.”

The project in Bella Coola is being managed by the Nuxalk Nation and Vancouver Coastal Health. Unique to Bella Coola is a Nuxalk-led project, Nukw’pstayctalsim, which means a place to regain health and well-being.

“We are very pleased to announce this partnership with Vancouver Coastal Health and the Province to provide the wellness supports that are so needed in our community,” said Samuel Schooner, chief councillor with Nuxalk Nation. “This complex-care housing plan is an example of the innovative service-delivery models that can be created when Indigenous communities are brought to the table as equal partners, and we are looking forward to beginning this important work.”

People in Powell River & Bella Coola with complex #mentalhealth & substance use challenges who are at risk of experiencing homelessness will soon benefit from new complex-care housing spaces.
Grateful to Tla’amin & Nuxalk Nations, Lift Community Services & @VCHhealthcare pic.twitter.com/bs5JPCPFdg

— Sheila Malcolmson (@s_malcolmson) May 20, 2022

Both locations will offer several comprehensive services depending on individual needs such as:

• Mental-health workers
• Overdose prevention services
• Medication management
• Peer supports
• Skills training
• Cooking and meal support

Both sites are set to be ready in in late 2022.

Through BC’s 2022 budget, the province will invest $164 million over the span of three years to support as many as 500 vulnerable people.

Since launching the initiative in January, the province has reported 253 complex-care spaces in communities throughout B.C.