Province overseeing Kamloops housing progress

“I think there will be support if communities need infrastructure upgrades to bring more housing forward,” Tom Calne, CHBA Central Interior president told CFJC Today. “I think there will be money coming from the province and that’s where I see the opportunity.”

However, to reach the targets, the province will be overseeing progress, possibly overstepping municipal jurisdiction when it comes to rezoning.

“They have also said that they could impose zoning onto cities in terms of what gets built,” Bepple explained. “The concern there is that the City of Kamloops has already put in many different programs for the type of housing that we need.”

In spite of these concerns, Kamloops mayor, Reid Hamer-Jackson, isn’t worried about competing authority. “We are going get all kinds of other housing help, I mean– hey there’s tons of communities that would just love to be getting that kind of support,” he said. “And I don’t believe they are going to be able to tell you what you got to do about everything.”

Though no housing quotas have been released, the shortage of labour is already slowing down construction in Kamloops. “It often makes us as builders frustrated, we are asked to solve the problems of housing and to build more and build more,” Calne said. “But we don’t necessarily have the labour, we don’t necessarily have the zoning tools in place where we can densify and it’s a challenge.”

The kind of housing that will be focused on in this act is still up in the air, with the provincial government saying more information will come later this summer. The mayor of Kamloops is hoping for affordable options for the middle class. “We’ve got enough harm reduction and drug housing, I really think that we need to address for a lot more of the community,” Hamer-Jackson said.

Bepple on the other hand, said she’s looking to address her largest single need in terms of core housing for Kamloops– which is single mothers with children. “That group is paying more than they can afford in terms of rent, they’re living in housing smaller than they need in terms of their family,” she said. “They are living in housing that’s not as up to the standard of what we hope people can have in terms of housing.”

by Sydney Chisholm

Province overseeing Kamloops housing progress

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