Better Safety Coming For People In Supportive Housing

Changes are coming to help keep people living and working in supportive housing safe.

“These changes are being made to ensure the safety of everyone living in supportive housing, staffing these sites and the community at large,” said Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Housing.

“Everyone deserves safe and stable housing. We are grateful to our partners who provide supportive housing in BC and will continue supporting them, as we continually improve the services that people rely on.”

The changes put a clear definition on supportive housing and exempt supportive-housing units from sections of the Residential Tenancy Act that prohibit guest policies and wellness checks.

Guest policies allow operators to manage who enters the building, and wellness checks permit staff the ability to enter a tenant’s room, when needed, as a chance way to confirm their health, well-being, and safety.

Christine Harris, an advocate for wellness checks, says had they been completed, her son Lindsey might not have died or been left for days undiscovered in his room. He died of sepsis while living in supportive housing.

The province says many supportive-housing providers rely on wellness checks and guest policies to ensure the safety of staff and tenants.

However, the practices are not currently allowed under the RTA.

In its 2018 report, the Province’s Rental Housing Task Force recommended that the specific needs of non-profit-housing and supportive-housing providers should be addressed in the RTA, such as the need to do wellness checks for their tenants, especially people with substance-use challenges.

The government has been working with BC Housing to develop operational standards for conducting good-faith wellness checks and to implement reasonable guest policies.

The province says its homelessness plan, announced in last year’s budget, will add 3,900 new supportive-housing units and 240 complex-care spaces provincewide.

To learn more, visit Government of British Columbia.