The VP of the Mana Homeless Society on who is really sleeping rough in Parksville, why the numbers keep climbing, and what this community can actually do about it.
There is a version of Parksville that tourists see — the beach, the boardwalk, the coffee shops on Island Highway. And there is a version that Raquel Molina sees every day in her work as Vice President of the Mana Homeless Society. Those two versions of this community rarely appear in the same conversation.
PQBVoice.ca sat down with Molina to have that conversation — the one about who is actually living without stable housing in Parksville and Qualicum Beach, what brought them here, and what it would actually take to change it.
The full episode of The Grateful Immigrant featuring Raquel Molina is publishing shortly. This article will be updated with the full transcript and detailed coverage when the episode goes live. Subscribe to the PQB Briefing below to be notified the moment it drops.
The Mana Homeless Society operates in the Oceanside area, providing support services for people experiencing homelessness or housing instability. Their work spans emergency support, outreach, advocacy, and navigation of the systems — housing registries, income assistance, mental health services — that are supposed to help people get back on their feet.
Molina's role puts her at the intersection of individual human stories and the systemic failures that create them. She sees both up close, daily. And she has opinions about both.
"People think homelessness looks a certain way. It doesn't. It looks like your neighbour. It looks like the person you went to school with. It looks like someone who had a job and a home and then something went wrong."
Raquel Molina, VP — Mana Homeless SocietyHousing is the defining local issue of this decade in communities like Parksville and Qualicum Beach. Rising rents, limited social housing supply, and an aging population with fixed incomes have created conditions where housing instability is no longer a fringe issue — it is a mainstream one.
The conversation PQBVoice.ca had with Molina goes beyond statistics. It is about the human beings behind the numbers, the decisions that created those numbers, and the things that could change them — if the community decided it wanted to.
This is the kind of conversation local journalism is supposed to have. The full episode of The Grateful Immigrant featuring Raquel Molina is coming shortly. Subscribe below to be notified the moment it publishes.
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Raquel Molina serves as Vice President of the Mana Homeless Society, an Oceanside-area organization providing support, outreach, and advocacy for people experiencing homelessness and housing instability in Parksville and Qualicum Beach. Her work focuses on both direct support and systemic change in the regional housing landscape.