B.C. housing minister Ravi Kahlon suggested the working group on safety issues in supportive housing will aim to give operators more tools while providing residents with fair protections and ultimately improving the safety of the staff who work there.
Some of the issues the working group will look at include drug-trafficking, weapons and second-hand exposure to fentanyl.
Kahlon said he’s been hearing from some non-profit housing operators flagging concerns they had trouble enforcing safety rules under the residential tenancy act.
“My hope is as we make this change there is really more responsibility on the providers to make sure their workers are safe, that they are operating a safe way, that the community feels safe,” he said, also noting his expectation is that when housing operators get the tools they’ve been asking for, they will be able to better manage the sites they have been operating.
He also suggested one of the factors which motivated him to take this action now is an increase of people smoking fentanyl as opposed to alternative methods of consumption, which creates more difficulties for the staff working at supportive housing sites.
“But we’ve also some new challenges in the last year or so,” he said. “When fentanyl came on the scene, folks were injecting. And now, particularly in the last year, we’ve seen a major shift with people smoking,” he said, adding that the fentanyl remaining in the air longer in units presents more challenges for workers.
This comes after the BC Coalition for Safe and Sustainable Supportive Housing called for an enforceable weapons ban in supportive housing and changes to the Residential Tenancy Act’s application to supportive housing.
Kahlon was on CFAX 1070 with Al Ferraby this morning (July 2):