The first four housing sites will be in Surrey, Abbotsford and Vancouver
SURREY: BC has announced a first-of-its-kind complex-care housing program for British Columbia’s most vulnerable people who need a level of support that goes beyond the current housing model. The proposed model will integrate housing, health and social supports to people who have overlapping issues such as homelessness, substance abuse and mental health challenges.
The first four housing sites will be in Surrey, Abbotsford and Vancouver.In Surrey the new Foxglove supportive housing will be the site fir this housing.
Complex-care housing is voluntary and integrated within the health-care system with direct connections to treatment and specialized care that could include support from nurses, peer, social workers and other health professionals. These first four locations will serve approximately 100 people who need enhanced support beyond what is provided in existing supportive housing.
Government will monitor and evaluate implementation of complex-care housing services to inform areas of focus in future expansion.
Giving details of Surrey’s site, Mayor Doug McCallum said, “At the new Foxglove building in Surrey,the Complex Care Housing program will be provided to 34 intensive supportive housing spaces and 5 transitional or respite spaces.”
“The Complex Care Housing spaces at the Foxglove building will be a valuable addition to the new supportive housing that City Council has put in place in Surrey. I commend the Province for the action being taken on this important issue and I look forward to working with them on building more innovative supportive housing projects in Surrey.”
In 2021, three new modular housing sites were open in Surrey creating 136 units of supportive housing for the most vulnerable. Foxglove is one of three new supportive housing buildings that will open in 2022. The three new buildings will create an additional 230 apartments and single bedroom units to house the homeless and other populations in need.
In addition to the various health, personal, social and job supports provided in supportive housing, the enhanced clinical and other services available in complex-care housing include:
* physical, mental-health and substance-use care;
* psychosocial rehabilitation supports;
* social, emotional and community supports;
* personal care and personal living supports;
* Indigenous cultural supports; and
* co-ordination and navigation services.
