New Westminster Residents Pack Open House for Planned 30-Unit Tiny Homes Village

More than 200 New Westminster residents filled the Anvil Centre ballroom on March 19 to get their first detailed look at BC Housing's proposal for a 30-unit modular tiny homes village at 502 20th Street, near the Fraser River waterfront east of the Queensborough Bridge. Another roughly 40 opponents stood outside waving placards, most carrying anti-drug slogans.

The project would place up to 30 single-room modular units on a site fronted by River Road and Stewardson Way, adjacent to Canadian Pacific's railway line and a mix of heavy industrial and single-family residential uses. The units have a specific pedigree: they are repurposed shipping containers that previously housed the Caledonia Place tiny homes village in Victoria, which closed earlier this winter after five years of operation and 150 cumulative residents served. Each unit runs roughly 100 square feet, with an independent exterior entrance, insulation, and ventilation. The New Westminster site will also include shared amenity spaces that BC Housing says will "provide more robust services for residents" beyond what the Victoria iteration offered.

The village is intended for adults aged 19 and older who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness in New Westminster, and would be operated by a non-profit housing operator with on-site support services. Tenants would pay rent to live there.

Poster boards set up around the ballroom laid out project details for attendees who came to ask questions and, in some cases, voice concern that future tenants could create safety problems in the surrounding neighbourhood. BC Housing, in a March 20 statement to Freshet News, pushed back on that framing directly: "Research shows that supportive housing helps reduce health care and corrections involvement, and hospital stays. After six months in supportive housing, research shows improved mental and physical health, employment opportunities and housing stability for tenants." The agency pointed to the 2025 BC Ministry of Housing report, Preventing and Reducing Homelessness: An Integrated Data Project, as supporting evidence.

On timeline, BC Housing stated that "modular units will begin arriving in the coming weeks, and the site is expected to open in late 2026 or early 2027." Daily Hive reported a tighter target, with site preparation expected to begin before the end of March and completion by December 2026. BC Housing's direct statement is the more conservative of the two projections, and the discrepancy has not been publicly resolved.

Opposition organized quickly after BC Housing officials first announced the project at New Westminster city council's February 23 meeting. Since then, critics have written to council, BC Housing, and media with concerns. Aldergrove resident Jolie Trost, founder of the Let's Vote Association and a participant in protests against a separate BC Housing project in Burnaby, sent an email to media, BC Housing, and council declaring that residents across British Columbia are "sick and tired of fighting this systematic drug-use housing failure." Trost targeted not only the proposed tiny homes village but also the existing homeless shelter on Columbia Street and a 52-unit supportive housing project under construction on Agnes Street, urging council to "vote no" to drug use across all three BC Housing projects in the city. "This type of housing is neither helpful to the vulnerable people truly in need, nor to the community," she wrote.

BC Housing has framed the village as a temporary measure while permanent, purpose-built supportive housing is completed elsewhere in the community. The 502 20th Street site sits about a 15-minute walk from the SkyTrain station and bus exchange via the BC Parkway pathway and the Queensborough Bridge's pedestrian overpass.