North Cowichan - Sq’umul’ Shelh Lelum’

Creating safe homes for people in North Cowichan

BC Housing has built 51 new permanent supportive homes at 6428 Paddle Road (formally 2983 Drinkwater Road). Sq’umul’ Shelh Lelum’ will be operated by Lookout Housing and Health Society. Lookout Housing and Health Society will have staff onsite 24/7. They will also work with community service partners to provide supports to residents. Residents are expected to move in at the start of April 2022.

Lookout Housing and Health Society

Lookout Housing and Health Society is a charitable organization and social safety net. Lookout Housing provide housing and a range of support services to adults with low or no income who have few, if any, housing or support options. Serving 14 municipalities in BC, including Vancouver, Victoria, Burnaby, Mission, Maple Ridge and North Cowichan, their services and housing operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to men and women requiring assistance.

Who to Call

To support the community in this transition, we have added a “who to call” sheet for this project. This sheet provides a quick list of important contact details and in which situations they could be used.

Design Details

The development permit for this project was submitted in the fall of 2020. You can learn more about the design for this site below:

Exterior Building Design

Property and Landscaping Design

Design Considerations

This property is located in the Bell McKinnon Local Area Plan (BMLAP) area:

• Improving the range of housing choices in the neighbourhood for a range of incomes
• Supporting initiatives and program that alleviate poverty
• Using colours and materials that fit with the cultural and historical context of the location
• Being pedestrian friendly
• Providing green spaces and functional landscape design
• Using an energy efficient design

Tree Protection and Placement Considerations

There are 56 trees on the property. The landscape design preserves as many of the trees as possible. It also adds new trees to the property. You can see the tree placement plan in the Property and Landscaping Design presentation.

The development permit requires 40% tree canopy cover on the property. This plan exceeds this threshold at full development.

The following guidelines were followed when choosing tree locations (distances measured from centre of trunk):

• 2 metres from all driveways
• 1.0 metre from the back of a sidewalk
• 2.5 metres from the back of a curb
• 1.5 metres from all sewer and drainage connections
• 1.5 metres from all water services
• 1.5 metres from all fire hydrants
• 6.0 metres from all streetlight poles
• 3.0 Metres from all utility poles

What is Supportive Housing?

You can learn more about supportive housing here.

Engaging with Neighbours

BC Housing held two virtual neighbourhood dialogue sessions to discuss the project with neighbours on August 18, 2020.

If you have any questions about this project please contact us at communityrelations@bchousing.org. You can also leave comments and questions below.

Due to technical issues, the Questions and Answers thread for this page from November 2018 to September 2021 cannot be displayed. However, we have provided a copy of the questions asked and the responses given during that time, which can be accessed here.

Community Advisory Committee

To help build a good relationship with the neighbourhood, a Community Advisory Committee is being set up. This committee will be made up of members of your community and the project partners. The group will meet on a regular basis to share information, ask questions and work together to build a strong community.