BC Housing confirmed at its presentation to council this week that residents will not get direct input on where the city’s new temporary housing will be located.
When Councillor Greenlaw asked, “to be clear, for the site selection portion there won’t be a community engagement piece?” Letizia Romei, Acting Director of Regional Development for the Lower Mainland at BC Housing, confirmed it outright. “That’s correct, yeah,” she said.
The reasoning, according to BC Housing, comes down to real estate. Site selection is listed on the project slides as outside the scope of public engagement because property transactions cannot be made public until they are finalized. Romei told council that once a location is locked in, that is when outreach to the public actually starts. “The typical process is that once the site has been selected, then the community engagement will begin,” she said, adding that feedback shared earlier in the process is still being collected and heard informally, even without a formal consultation step.
BC Housing said it would work closely with district staff to identify a suitable site. When Councillor Stoner asked whether the district was effectively being relied on to provide that on-the-ground perspective and handle outreach with residents directly, Romei replied “We would definitely work closely with staff on the site selection piece, so absolutely open to discussions and feedback.”
Several councillors pushed back on how that arrangement lands with residents. “It’s not like we have a million sites to choose from, we’ll be honest with the community about that,” Stoner said. Councillor Hamilton later returned to the issue, urging residents to come forward with alternatives rather than objections once a site is announced. “If you don’t think this site should be selected, please take the next step and suggest which sites should,” Councillor Hamilton said.
The consultation question sat inside a much bigger presentation about why the program exists at all. BC Housing’s Gillian Child told council that the 2025 Point in Time Count identified 125 people experiencing homelessness in Squamish, and that the population is local. Seventy three per cent had lived in the community for at least a year, and half for five years or more. Child described the downtown encampments as unsafe both for the people sheltering there and for the surrounding neighbourhood.
The response itself comes in two linked parts. Heart, the Homeless Encampment Action Response, is a coordination effort bringing together local government, BC Housing, Vancouver Coastal Health, the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, and Indigenous and non-profit partners, backed by two new outreach positions split between the North Shore and Sea to Sky corridor. Hearth is the housing side, where staffed modular transitional housing is meant to get people indoors quickly while BC Housing continues separate work on 65 permanent supportive homes planned for 39900 Government Road. Staff said a site is expected to be confirmed this summer or fall, with community engagement to follow shortly after, and an estimated opening in winter 2027 or 2028.
Once a site is announced, BC Housing’s engagement plan includes letters and emails to neighbours, a public information session, smaller meetings with directly affected parties, an ongoing community relations inbox, and eventually a meet-the-operator event once a non-profit is selected through a public tender process on BC Bid. That operator selection, like the funding program’s specific service requirements, is also handled outside the public engagement process, which BC Housing said is standard for how these contracts are structured provincially.
On safety, BC Housing pointed to features like 24/7 on-site staffing, controlled entry, and lighting and camera coverage, framing these as benefits for residents rather than restrictions. Staff said pets may be permitted depending on behaviour, that healthcare would be coordinated through Vancouver Coastal Health rather than provided directly, and that overdose prevention support would also be available to residents.
