MLA Rice weighs in on social media forum exploring status of Makola Housing in Prince Rupert

Makola Housing in Prince Rupert is in the spotlight of late
as residents of the community take some of their concerns on housing
to social media

This past weekend found the topic of housing in Prince Rupert one of some interest to many on social media, with a couple of separate threads of commentary making for a range of views and commentary through the Prince Rupert Community Bulletin Board portal.

Much of the focus was on the service and conditions for residents of Makola Housing in the community, with some comments from residents of other parts of the province that also have Makola housing. 

The M'akola Housing Society which is based out of Victoria,  has offices on Kootenay Avenue in the McKay street area in Prince Rupert and oversees much of the public housing stock in the community.

And as might be imagined considering the focus on the rental situation in the city these days,  the state of the housing from west side to east brought forward no shortage of comments and examples of some conditions that clearly should be explored further by provincial housing officials.

One of the threads, this one, seemed to catch the eye of North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice, who responded to a few calls in the forum for a change in representation at the Legislature to address the growing issues found in Prince Rupert.  

The forum contributions, which are well worth a read,  do provide more than a few examples of the range of concerns in the community, so if Ms. Rice is looking for a starting point for some investigation, the map is a pretty clear and easy one to follow from the community forum content. 

The mix of in service and out of service housing units on McKay is one 
example of the current crisis in housing in Prince Rupert

So far there has been no follow up on the items of note from the MLA through the forums of the weekend,  or by way of her own Social Media stream.

One area where MLA Rice may be able to provide some additional notes on, is that of the status of the long delayed rebuild of housing on McKay Street on the city's west side.

As is pointed out more than a few times in those forums for the weekend, in a city facing an acute housing shortage; the visual of a number of row houses sitting abandoned and closed to the public is an element of the topic on housing that deserves some further review and action towards.

The original plan was for the units on McKay to be demolished and those homes replaced by new housing, but so far that ambitious housing program has not happened and there have been No updates from BC Housing since January of this year, as to when the remediation work and construction of new units will take place.

The Harbour View Gardens proposal as it is known,  is still a featured item on the BC Housing website, though there is nothing of note there to suggest that we'll see any shovels hit the ground in the near future.

Should the ongoing housing crisis and lack of new units to resolve it continues to be as it is, it's likely the city's current MLA may not find much to like in the days ahead from the commentary from those seeking answers on the state of housing in Prince Rupert.

A look at housing in the community can be reviewed from our archive page.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.