100 units of affordable housing a “piece of the puzzle,” says Mayor Hall

First Avenue may soon be home to 100 new affordable homes in the Northern Capital. 

The Government of British Columbia is partnering with the City of Prince George and Northern Health on the development, which would be located at the current location of NR Motors. 

BC Housing would lead the construction of the project, to be built in two phases. The first phase would include approximately 50 supportive homes for people experiencing homelessness and the second phase would include 50 affordable rental homes for low- to moderate-income individuals and families. 

Mayor Lyn Hall said specific dollar amounts haven’t been hashed out yet. 

“We’ll have more information on that down the road, we’re still in contractual obligations and there are things that still have to be done in respect to that contract, not too far in the future.” 

Each building would include ground-floor health-care space that would deliver services for both residents and the public. Northern Health, in partnership with other health-service agencies, would oversee these spaces and provide primary care, harm reduction and specialized mental health and substance-use services.

“The project has been discussed for a year and a half or more, and it really was a result of Northern Health downtown services review,” said Hall. 

“It was evident that we could move forward with something like this, this integrated health services model, we felt that is was something really different and something really unique. It’s not a fix for everything, but it’s a piece of the puzzle and it’s a huge piece.” 

The project is not quite ready to go yet; the city will be holding public consultations and the land itself has to go through a rezoning process with council, all of which Hall said they expect to begin in early fall of this year.