Pop-up Pods to the Rescue. Again.
One of last year’s great success stories were the pods that BC Housing sourced and rolled out at emergency response centres across the province to address pandemic restrictions. These pods became almost like bridge housing. As Heidi Hartman said at the time, “this is a dignified and respectful way to house people. People start to think about what wellness looks like for them when they have a safe and private space of their own.” In an oddly positive bit of news, people experiencing street homelessness were mostly spared from COVID-19 in the early part of the pandemic, largely because their lives were already so cut off from the rest of society. But that changed this year and clients who were testing positive needed to go into isolation, but few spaces were now available (those who did become ill went to hospital). We had to get flexible and creative. How could more people fit? Working closely with operators, we were able to take already full buildings and somehow find more capacity. And the pods again proved themselves a blessing. Pods popped up in the nooks and crannies of existing supportive housing areas. Banquet halls, and conference rooms in hotels were pressed into service. The health authorities worked with us to have extra vaccine clinics and testing on site and ensure safety protocols were in place. That went a long way to helping ease any fears of our partners’ staffers. The collaboration was a true success story
Operations 2021 – a year in review
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