Image Credit: Kent Simmonds / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

KAMLOOPS HOUSING NEEDS

Access to housing a key issue for BC’s Office of the Human Rights Commissioner

Jan 22, 2025 | 6:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — Among the many issues coming to the attention of the Office of BC’s Human Rights Commissioner, housing has come to the fore as a key topic. In Kamloops Wednesday (Jan. 22), Kasari Govender, BC’s Human Rights Commissioner, says many British Columbians do not have access to a safe, affordable place to call home. The City of Kamloops is actively working on ways to increase the amount of housing, but reaching the number of units the province wants to see hasn’t been attainable so far.

Struggling to find an affordable place to buy or rent is a situation more and more people are finding themselves in. And Govender says that can be anyone — homeless populations, seniors, people with disabilities and people who have full- or part-time jobs.

“It means we need accessible, low-barrier housing that has lots of supports for people who need that. But that’s not all people who are street involved. We also need housing that’s just incredibly affordable for people who are working poor, for example.”

Govender says, given the broad spectrum impacted by housing insecurity, planning for future housing development needs to consider the population as a whole.

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“It’s a full range of housing supports. Shelter is just one — it’s at the very low end of the options. We can’t consider shelter beds actual housing so we need to build the stock and invest in social housing of all kinds.”

On a municipal level, the City of Kamloops has a role to play with rezoning applications and land use designations.

“We can help houses and apartments and stratas and all of those things be built, but we don’t build them,” notes Kamloops councillor Dale Bass, who reiterates that the city cannot force developers to build more projects.

Last month, a housing needs report identified that the city is struggling to meet a five-year building goal the province has tasked it with. Kamloops is one of more than a dozen cities across B.C. that the province identified as needing more housing and set targets for those municipalities to reach by 2028.

Locally, the goal is to build 4,236 net new housing units by September of 2028. However in the first year, the city was only about to reach 66 per cent of the year-one target.

Even after approving paperwork on its end, the city says it cannot control the pace of a development. When asked if the housing target is feasible, Bass states in her opinion, it is not.

“No, I don’t think it is,” said Bass. “I think in the end, Ravi (Kahlon), now that he has both the Municipal Affairs and Housing (ministerial files), will realize that you can say you want this, but if we can’t do it… and we can’t. And it’s based on occupancy. There is a lot being built, but it takes a long time to build anymore.”

Solving everyone’s housing needs won’t happen overnight. But in the meantime, Govender feels that building education on the topic — and empathy — are keys.

“They have human rights, and those human rights are not respected if people are forcibly decamped, and sent back out into the cold, and into a different temporary housing situation,” adds Govender.