The District of Port Hardy has agreed to provide land to the Sanala Culturally Supportive Housing Society.
The decision to provide the land to the non-profit society, located on Highway 19 just past the Trustee Road intersection, was approved unanimously at council’s March 26 meeting.
“It’s a memorandum of understanding between the district and the society,” stated Mayor Pat Corbett-Labatt when asked to comment on the decision. “It’s so that the Sanala Culturally Supportive Housing Society can go forward and apply for funds to actually look at that land and see if it’s suitable or not.”
The society had originally requested land from the district back in December so that it could finish applying for grant funding from BC Housing, with the objective being to “support the creation of a space and a pathway for healing and recovery for unhoused indigenous community members through culturally supportive housing and decolonized harm reduction.”
The housing project would have 18-24 units max and be scaled based on “current needs and capacity to deliver services” and once established, the society would “participate in the hiring process of the house manager.”
Corbett-Labatt was also appointed as a director for the Sanala Culturally Supportive Housing Society.
“As the representative of the District of Port Hardy, I’m there to lend my support and to help out as best I can,” she said. “I feel very strongly that this supportive housing would be one way of helping to address issues our most vulnerable population are dealing with.”