The City of Vancouver picked out a spot for another Safe Stay community to help those experiencing homelessness.
If the newest site on Main Street near Kiggins Bowl Athletic Stadium gets approval, this will be the fourth location for the city.
"This location is very close to a school. Rumblings I hear so far are about how very close it is to a school. I think that during the communications and over the next few weeks people will learn that we do have a vetting process. There’s an application process. A background check process. Sex offenders at all levels are screened out," said Homeless Response Manager Jamie Spinelli.
The city is taking public input on the proposed location, and if that passes the test then companies can bid on the project.
"Oh, I don’t know. Something needs to be done and I think it's probably a step in the right direction. It could be we’ll be having more and more of these as we go along. That’s just the way it is," said longtime Vancouver resident Larry Blonsky, when asked if he thought the new location posed any danger.
When the site is approved, tiny homes could be built quickly.
“We still need to talk with contractors to figure out the scope of work. But that site is already paved. Our first two sites took roughly four weeks to stand up. I would imagine something similar,” said Spinelli.
The third site for a safe stay community is on West 11th Street near Esther Short Park.
That lot still needs to be paved, but the city thinks homes there will be move-in ready near the end of summer.
The city has money in the budget right now for five safe space communities, but Spinelli adds that if for some reason the need goes down, the tiny homes can come down even faster than they went up.