Image: Mike Vanden Bosch / PML / Construction is now underway on properties located at 45825, 45835, 45845, and 45855 Rowat Avenue, and 45865 Trethewey Avenue, to build 49 supportive housing units and 42 shelter beds in a four-storey building. The building will have a common outdoor amenity area featuring a landscaped area, a sweat lodge, and rooftop deck.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Supportive housing and homeless shelter

Construction underway on supportive housing, homeless shelter west of Young Road

Feb 10, 2023 | 11:30 AM

CHILLIWACK — Contracting crews have begun moving dirt at the site of a future supportive housing complex and homeless shelter on a sizable parcel of land west of Young Road in Chilliwack.

Construction is now underway on the property at 45857 Trethewey Avenue, to build 49 supportive housing units and 42 shelter beds in a four-storey building. The building will have a common outdoor amenity area featuring a landscaped area, a sweat lodge, and rooftop deck. Of the 49 supportive housing units, 22 will be dedicated to people requiring complex care housing.

Jamie Leggatt, director of communications for the City of Chilliwack, said Friday morning (Feb. 10) that B.C. Housing has advised city staff that the building will be completed and open in the fall 2023.

Chilliwack City Council approved the issuance of a development permit for four properties on Rowat Avenue and one property on Trethewey Avenue, one block west of Shandhar Hut, at its meeting on August 16, 2022.

The aim is to transfer over 90 homeless people into stable housing and alleviate the corresponding effects in the community. The five properties have been consolidated into one.

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B.C. Housing will provide funding to the Phoenix Drug and Alcohol Recovery and Education Society to operate and manage the building.

“I want to thank B.C. Housing for their work on it, and their money,” Popove said during the August 16, 2022 council meeting. “The Phoenix Society will be the operator of this facility. They have a great track record. It’s a big piece of our infrastructure to help our most vulnerable folks in our city. I’m elated and I will absolutely be in favour of this.”

According to an August 2022 staff report prepared by Erin Leary, manager of development planning, the development represents a “high-quality addition to the area. The design of the building and site is visually appealing and will be architecturally consistent with other new construction within the surrounding area.”

The supportive housing and shelter will be in one development with cultural spaces, meeting rooms and kitchen to boot. The supportive homes will consist of studio apartments containing a bathroom and kitchen. The housing complex aims to provide support like tenant support workers, life skills training, employment assistance, and referrals to community services and support groups. Residents will have access to counseling as well as health, mental health, and substance-use services through Fraser Health.

The 42-space shelter replaces the temporary Portal shelter formerly located at 46293 Yale Road.

In June 2021 an application to amend the Official Community Plan designation for these properties to a comprehensive development area and rezone the lots to an R8 category, or supportive housing, was ratified by Chilliwack City Council, allowing the proposed housing to proceed. However, assorted delays slowed the project from moving forward.

B.C. Housing released a statement Friday afternoon confirming clients in complex care at this location will have access to enhanced on-site supports, including nurses, peer workers, social workers, and other health-care professionals, along with access to treatment and other specialized services.

B.C. Housing also confirmed that the project is expected to be done by fall 2023, and exact funding amounts will be made public closer to opening.