The last time Victoria Towers was open for business, it was well below zero and people were fleeing for their lives into the November morning while ice-caked firefighters rushed inside.
On Friday, government officials and social service advocates met at the threshold of the 12-storey apartment building on 20th Avenue and opened the doors again for the first time in almost three years. The 91 apartments have been vacant since then.
Many of the residents at the time were low- or moderate-income living in conditions described as generally under cared for. Then, during its vacancy, it was purchased by BC Housing and fully renovated. Now it is open again, and exclusively for that income strata, but will be closely managed by provincial authorities to ensure a safe and progressive environment inside.
"Safe, affordable housing is a pretty basic thing," said local MLA Shirley Bond at the event. "[When the fire happened] all I could think about was: one, take care of people's immediate needs, which Prince George does so well with all the resources that come together in times of need, and two, how do we now improve capacity for people who really need a home but don't have the resources many of us do?"
Bond pointed to one of northern B.C.'s senior officials with BC Housing, Malachy Tohill, and gave him full credit for conceiving of the project and stickhandling the logistics. It was Tohill, she said, who saw the burned out apartment tower as an opportunity to help the community on several levels at once if that property was purchased and restored.
It cost $15 million to make it happen, mostly paid by the province but with some help from the federal government.
Local MP Dick Harris was on hand, Friday, to celebrate the renewal of the building that he once lived in himself in his and the tower's younger days.
Mayor Shari Green was in attendance and remembered how, in her youth, she was made homeless by an apartment fire that destroyed all she owned. That was her recall when she heard firefighters had to be dispatched to Victoria Towers in late 2011. She said 20 municipal staff responded to the disaster, aiding 57 households get through the initial days and months of the aftermath. She praised the Prince George office of the Canadian Red Cross, and Northern Health for stepping forward in big ways.
"There has been an amazing amount of change since then," Green said. "This building is ready for a new start and you can see this whole neighbourhood is experiencing a renaissance."
The tower is not just housing. It will be office space and program space for many stakeholders in the affordable housing equation. Some are dedicated to the disabled, some to youth, some for single people and some for couples and families.
A small number of apartments were moved into this past winter, with about 35 units already occupied. Some of the residents spoken to on Friday said it was indeed a home they liked to live in. The vacant rooms are set to intake residents immediately.
