VICTORIA, BC — Sonia Furstenau announced that the BC Greens would meet the Vancouver Island Mayors’ call to expand the successful model of transitional housing, ‘The Village’, spearheaded in Duncan. Furstenau supported the model during her last term as MLA for Cowichan Valley. The mayors of Campbell River, Duncan, Port Alberni, Nanaimo and Victoria voted to call on the provincial government to expand the model at UBCM last month.
“The Village proves that we have practical solutions for the homelessness crisis,” said Furstenau. “BC Green MLAs will work hard every day to push for compassionate policies like these that have been proven effective by local governments.
“The Conservatives want to shut down transitional housing and the BC NDP have shown that they can be scared into adopting rightwing positions on this issue. Both parties are ignoring the calls from compassionate local governments who are on the frontlines of this crisis, as well as the evidence on what would actually meet the needs of our most vulnerable members of society.
“Both John Rustad and David Eby have served in majority governments that have created the root causes of our intersecting crises by ignoring the evidence. The BC Greens will tackle those root causes by ensuring that people have access to the support they need so that we can actually prevent crises from deepening. Prevention is always more cost-effective than a cure – we have the tools we need for everyone in BC to have a healthy, safe life in BC and BC Green MLAs will push for the changes to get it done.”
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