Prince George is initiating two pilot programs making bathrooms, storage spaces, and outreach services available downtown.
The first pilot, which will be tested for one year, is located at 181 Quebec Street and has been open since mid-September.
“The response from those using them has been really positive,” said City Social Planning Manager Chris Bone.
The site is open Monday through Saturday and operating hours to best suit the needs of those accessing site services, are still under review. The current schedule is structured to test a range of hours between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m.
The City, BC Housing, and The Prince George Native Friendship Centre are all partners in funding and resources. The city’s contribution to both projects has been $168,000.
The second initiative involves a partnership between the City of Prince George and an Association Advocating for Women and Community (AWAC), located at 144 George Street.
The partners will implement a pilot project from October 2019 – April 2020 at the AWAC site that will enable co-ed access to storage, bathrooms, laundry, showers, as well as complementary services and supports.
AWAC is opening the main floor of its operation from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days per week to provide monitored access to a range of services and supports.
Bone spoke about why these services are important in the city.
“Oftentimes we think individuals on the street with all of their belongings are really causing us a problem, but the issue is they have nowhere else to put them. To provide an option for people to safely store their belongings and to use the washroom facilities really enables these individuals to better connect to the services they might not have been able to access before because they have a lot of belongings with them,” she said.