Former co-op housing building to take on new life with RIH Foundation

“We are going to open in August because there are some renal patients that are coming from Golden. They called me and said, ‘we hear you have housing for doctors. Could you help us?'”

The former RareBirds Housing cooperative, will be called Mercier House, after Guy Mercier, who has pledged to donate about $1 million towards over four years. Mercier stepped in after witnessing the struggles his sister endured as she had to travel about three hours one way to get cancer treatment.

“After Christmas [last year, Coleman] begged me to come over to have a look at this location,” Mercier recalled. “As soon as I walked in, I connected with my sister. The location, the quality of the product, and the kind of unusual build of the house with different rooms with whole bathrooms and facilities and the possibilities of an elevator.”

“We had a deal and that’s basically why we are here today.”

The 6,300 square-foot property has nine bedrooms with two beds each, along with a shared kitchen and living space. Six bedrooms are on the main two floors, while final three bedrooms in a lower-level suite.

At Tuesday’s (July 14) council meeting, councillors approved a site-specific rezoning allowing up to 15 unrelated people to stay in the home at one time.

“As soon as we went back to the city to get permission or even engage with getting permission to move forward on that [rezoning] change, they were 100 per cent supportive,” Andrew Karpiak, the Board Chair of the RIH Foundation said. “It was almost like it was made for us to be honest.”

“It’s a shame that the RareBirds chapter ended to some extent, but there’s an opportunity there and we took advantage of it.”

The RIH Foundation is going to spend the next few weeks putting the finishing touches at the house, ahead of next month’s anticipated opening. It’ll be fine tuning its reservation system that will be used by prospective residents.

Coleman said residents will have to apply online, and if they’re approved, they’ll be sent instructions things like how to access the space, what room they’re in, and where to park. She also added the RIH Foundation proactively reached out to neighbours to keep them informed about the plans, and that “everyone loved the house.”

The RIH Foundation expects to charge patients and caregivers $50 a night to keep the space affordable. Two of the lower-level bedrooms are occupied by medical students who are paying 1,000 a month. If there are vacant rooms and health professionals in need of space to sleep, they may be offered a space at a different rate, Coleman added.

“We’ve looked at budget and expenses and long-term needs and that’s how we came up with that $50 nightly fee,” Charla Johnstone, a member of the project’s steering committee, said. “We want to have a low cost but it also has to sustain all of the security and the management and the upkeep of the house, property tax all that sort of stuff.”

While budgets have not been fully finalized, Coleman said they’re also hoping the province and others step up to help cover some of those operating costs.

“I would love for [Health] Minister [Josie] Osborne to come and see what we’re doing here, because I do think when radiation opens in 2028, there will be a large demand especially if some people have to come for four to five weeks at at time,” Coleman said.

“We’re going to look to private family foundations, local people here, and we will fundraise for the house because Kamloops needs this.”

by Victor Kaisar

Former co-op housing building to take on new life with RIH Foundation

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