A new complex-care and supportive housing building was unveiled in Green Timbers on Thursday, featuring 130 units that include 66 supportive housing homes, 34 complex care beds and 30 shelter beds.
David Eby, provincial attorney general and minister responsible for housing, said there are 1,400 units of supportive and “affordable” housing in Surrey which are “either open or underway” in Surrey but there are still 600 people in Surrey either living without shelter or who are homeless.
At 9810 Foxglove Dr., he said, there are 34 beds for people with “complex” mental health and addiction challenges.
“This is going to be really positive news for the community,” he said. “People who need these supports are really visible in the streets, where they have regular interactions with police, with emergency responders, with fire, with ambulance, emergency rooms, courtrooms, with the attorney general – I know they’re in and out of courtrooms often – and those are the wrong services. The services they need are the health care services they’re going to be receiving here.”
People have been living at the Foxglove Supportive Housing facility since March. The provincial government provided $25 million to the project and will also provide $3 million each year in operating funding, Eby said.
David Eby, attorney general and minister responsible for housing, speaking at the opening of the supportive housing project in #surreybc @SurreyNowLeader @tomzytaruk pic.twitter.com/dWyZGsAoJq
— Lauren Collins (@laurenpcollins1) April 21, 2022
READ ALSO: Surrey approves lease with province for shelter near Green Timbers forest
Sheila Malcolmson, minister of mental health and addictions, said the facility will serve people suffering from complex mental health and addiction challenges “who historically have been left behind.”
She said when the Riverview psychiatric hospital in Coquitlam was finally closed in 2012 “it was with good intentions” but community supports that were promised at that time to replace its services never materialized.
“And we see the results of this on our streets,” she said. “People were left without support. People have now been living on the street for many years.”
The opening of Foxglove Supportive Housing represents a step toward fixing that, she said.
Here’s some background on the project from the groundbreaking back in Nov. 2019 #surreyBChttps://t.co/P4SR3vY8IX
— Lauren Collins (@laurenpcollins1) April 21, 2022
Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum said at the presser that this project is the first of its kind in B.C. and will offer “enhanced support beyond what is provided in existing supportive housing across the province.”
“I truly believe this is a model that we are going to break the back of homelessness as we move forward,” McCallum said. “These new homes and shelter beds at Foxglove will be truly life-changing for the 130 people in Surrey and is the beginning of a brand-new approach to supporting those who are most marginalized in our communities.”
Randeep Sarai, Liberal MP for Surrey Centre, said the federal government invested $5 million in the project.
“We’ll continue to do our part to help more British Columbians have a place to call home,” Sarai said.
tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com
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