After nearly four years of overseeing a transitional housing project to support people at risk of homelessness at the former Knights Inn in downtown Prince George, the end is near for the Prince George Native Friendship Centre’s (PGNFC) involvement as the program’s operator.
A letter from BC Housing has been circulating to the remaining tenants which confirms the building at 650 Dominion St. will be closing.
“It’s due to the shape of the building,” said Jennifer Harrington, the Native Friendship Centre’s director of supportive housing.
Some of the 47 units in the building have been damaged with holes around light switches and fixtures that have exposed wires. A stairway had to be closed because it was deemed unsafe, and there have been reports of poor water quality and mice in the building.
PGNFC executive director Barb Ward-Burkitt admits the state of the building has suffered from the effects of housing some of the city’s most vulnerable residents, people at various stages of substance addictions and some with mental health and hoarding issues.
“The Knights Inn was opened as a result of moving folks from Moccasin Flats when they tried closing it down three years ago and BC Housing reached out to us to ask us to be the operator to do that,” said Ward-Burkitt.
“It was supposed to be a one-year project. It’s coming to the end of our contract with BC Housing, so we’re working to move many of those folks from Knights Inn into other housing,” she said. “The reason we are moving away from that contract after three years is that’s an old building and it’s been harder to maintain that building, so we’ve made the decision as an organization to not be a provider in that facility.”
Knights Inn was used by Northern Health during the pandemic to provide temporary housing for street people to isolate them from the COVID-19 virus. When the Friendship Centre took it over in 2021, all 47 units were occupied. There are now just eight people living there.
The PGNFC has found other accommodation for 22 residents in recent months and Ward-Burkitt says it’s been difficult finding the remaining tenants alternative housing in the city.
“We’ve moved many of those individuals onto the main floor, so they’re not in the upstairs, to the best of the not necessarily excellent rooms,” she said. “Almost every one of them agreed to new room that was freshened up (with paint) but not every one of them because they’re paying rent and they can make their own decisions. I think only two of the 11 chose not to move into a fresh room.”
Although the BC Housing letter to tenants lists March 30, 2026 as the day Knights Inn will be shut down permanently, a firm date has yet to be determined. Harrington said it won’t be closed until everyone living there has a place to go.
“We would like to be wrapping up a little bit before that and it’s because of the building, it’s not because of the program or the people there,” said Harrington. “This was supposed to end almost a year ago and we’re just trying to make sure everybody gets housed, so we’re really hoping that before the snow flies everyone is out of there.”
Knowing their contract was coming to an end, the PGNFC did not replace tenants as they moved out and that’s been the policy for about the past year.
“We didn’t keep people coming in there because then we would have been setting ourselves up for having to house a whole bunch of more people at the end of the project,” said Harrington. “It always had an end date and we’ve really tried to accommodate the people that live there the best we can.
“The stairs have been decommissioned but they have put up stairs that meet the regulation to make them safe. It is something that we need to move people on to more permanent housing within the community.”
Some of the former Knights Inn tenants have been moved to the 30-unit Fraser Inn at 1616 Queensway, bought by BC Housing along in 2023, along with the adjacent Direct Art building. Others have found places to live in housing provided by other social agencies.
The PGNFC provides Knights Inn tenants with daily meals and collaborates with other agencies such as the Brain Injured Group and central Interior Native Health to offer wraparound support to the people living there.
Knights Inn is one of seven supportive housing facilities the PGNFC operates for adults and the centre also provides youth supportive housing.
The city’s long-term plan for the building is to demolish it to make way for the Civic Core Plan redevelopment, a project to replace Kopar Memorial Arena and add to the Prince George Civic and Convention Centre at Canada Games Place.
The city bought the motel in March 2024 for $4.15 million. BC Housing paid the city $1.134 million up front (based on the monthly cost of $47,250) to cover a two-year lease that runs through March 30, 2026. The remaining $3.036 million of the purchase price was paid for from the city’s Endowment Reserve Fund.
The city’s collaboration with BC Housing on the building purchase follows a memorandum of understanding signed in June 2023 that formalizes a commitment for the province and municipal governments to work together on projects that support unhoused people in the city.
BC Housing is currently renovating the second 30-unit building of its Victoria Street Housing Project in the former North Star Inn and Suites at 1500 Victoria St. Its larger 60-unit building has been occupied for about a year and has been plagued with vandalism, violent incidents involving tenants and fires set in the units.
