Canada’s minister of mental health and addictions paid a visit to Port Alberni this week to tour a tiny home village that is expected to open at the end of the month.
Carolyn Bennett, MP for Toronto-St. Paul’s, was invited by Courtenay-Alberni MP Gord Johns to tour Walyaqil Tiny Home Village in Port Alberni. Johns says it’s unusual for his riding to get a visit from a federal minister, but he felt that it was appropriate since Port Alberni is “ground zero” of British Columbia’s toxic drug crisis.
Johns said he invited the minister specifically to come to Port Alberni because its toxic drug deaths are more than double the provincial average. Between the ages of 19 and 45, the number of toxic drug deaths is almost five times the provincial average, said Johns.
READ MORE: Port Alberni tackles illicit drug use in public places
“It’s critical that the minister come here and meet with people on the front line, so that she can fully get an idea of what we need,” said Johns. “She can see models and examples that we can replicate across the country to address this crisis, but also to accelerate the needs here in Port Alberni and in our communities.”
Walyaqil Tiny Home Village isn’t just providing housing for the community, said Cyndi Stevens, executive director of the Port Alberni Friendship Center, which operates the site. The tiny homes will also provide people with things like support, counselling and food as they “transition” to a better living situation. The site will include an office that will be staffed 24/7.
A total of 20 tiny homes have been installed, as well as a separate washroom facility with showers. Surrey-based Zen Denz built the eight-foot-by-12-foot “pods,” which each include a table, a bed and a mini fridge. Mowachaht artist Patrick Amos has provided artwork for the inside of the tiny homes—each pod will have a different hand-drawn illustration by Amos.
Stevens says the tiny homes are “getting very close to being finished” by the end of July.
“All the interiors are definitely done, other than a few things to be done by the electrician, which will be done this week,” she said on July 4. “The roofs are just about finished.”
Stevens says the only building left to install is the main office, which could take another two to three weeks. The Friendship Center already has a list of people who are going to live in the homes, and they are “just about finished” staffing the project, added Stevens.
Stevens says there is space at the site for another 10 tiny homes, although the Friendship Center is still waiting on funding for them.
READ MORE: ‘Unexpected’ costs threaten progress of Port Alberni’s tiny home village
Walyaqil was just the first stop on Bennett’s quick tour of Port Alberni, which also included stops at the Overdose Prevention Site on Third Avenue and a meeting with the town’s Community Action Team (CAT).
“Part of my job is to find out what’s working on the ground,” said Bennett. “Gord [Johns] has laid out a program of the things he wants me to see so that we can promote them back in Ottawa and feed them into that kind of evidence-based policy that is culturally safe, trauma-informed.”
When asked about the possibility of a detox facility in Port Alberni, Bennett said that treatment is usually under provincial jurisdiction, but the federal government will “support in whatever way they can.” But detox doesn’t work for everyone, she added—there are other tools to be considered to tackle the toxic drug crisis, such as safe supply and overdose prevention.
“Everybody is doing their part, but building bottom-up,” said Bennett. “Which is the reason we have to come and see these wise and promising practices because then you get to learn what’s working, what are the gaps and how can we replicate it across the country.”
elena.rardon@albernivalleynews.com
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