Roly Russell, the parliamentary secretary of rural development for the minister of housing, took a walking tour of Moccasin Flats Tuesday at noon.
The Boundary-Similkameen NDP MLA was guided by community advocate Phillip Fredriksson, along with a group of dedicated volunteers, to observe living conditions at the homeless encampment.
The group started at the east end of Moccasin Flats to visit with those living in makeshift dwellings, tiny homes, tents and finally made their way to the wellness centre run by AWAC to provide a warm, safe space for the unhoused in downtown Prince George.
“It’s beautiful, it’s great,” Fredriksson said about having Russell taking the tour in the snowy cold.
“I’m so excited that we could have Roly Russell here to be able to witness on the ground what’s happening here in Prince George and bring attention to the issue here. Not only did they take me up on the offer of the tour, but they showed up, they took the tour, we got to show them our warehouse, where we built the tiny homes, and then moved right on to walking through Moccasin Flats so they could see the work that we’ve done and we were able to talk about the 44 Atco units that are going to be placed at the end of Moccasin Flats with services attached and that was great.”
Fredriksson was pleased that Russell was in the wellness centre chatting with community members to conclude the tour.
During the tour, Russell said he saw a strong sense of community demonstrated at Moccasin Flats.
“As I was walking around you could see everyone come together,” Russell said. “Whether it’s the people using the warming centre or those who are out there helping clear the snow and everyone in between. It was pretty neat to see that.”
Russell said he came down to Moccasin Flats to see what could be done to improve the quality of life for people.
“We want everyone to do well in life and this is the stuff that fills my cup – to come out and be able to see the work that people are doing to help other people and to help improve everybody’s situation.” Russell said.
“We see that there have been challenges in the past and now what I hear is some optimism about the relationship between the municipality and BC Housing and the provincial government to be able to help work through programs like our Heart and Hearth programs to deliver homes for people. One of the conversations I just came out of was around how do we make sure the grassroots of this community is actually helping guide that process so we hear some good news around 44 units just a block away and so how do we make sure that’s done right and making sure that there is good engagement with the people on the ground so it works well for them.”
