By Dylana Milobar

Spero House opening provides new affordable housing opportunity

Mar 29, 2019 | 4:49 PM

KAMLOOPS — The latest housing addition to Kamloops’ North Shore is ready to open its doors to people in need of affordable housing.

Located at 317 Tranquille Rd. on a plot of land provided by the City of Kamloops, Spero House will begin having tenants move in starting on Monday, with the 58 studio units filled by the end of next week.

On top of social services and a harm reduction space, the building can help a wide spread of clientele by offering eight wheelchair accessible apartments.

After investing $11.4 million for capital and construction costs, the provincial government will also implement an annual subsidy of $984,000 for the project.

With at least 200 homeless people in Kamloops, ASK Wellness, and BC Housing have been assessing each person who has applied to live in the 58 units.

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Monthly rent is priced at $375, however ASK Wellness Executive Director Bob Hughes says that doesn’t exclude people who cannot afford that amount. 

“We’ll find a way. We’ve done things where we’ll waive damage deposits. Some of the donations that we receive through projects, we’ll take that money and it’ll cover the rent for the person.”

The building also provides accessible affordable housing for physically handicapped clients. 

“In all our inventory, we probably have only four wheelchair-accessible units. And so when we were looking at this building and what it could actually achieve, one of the things that we pushed for was it had to have handicap accessible units,” he explains. “So the result of that is we have eight units in the building.”

On top of the 58 long-term living studios, there are also four temporary transitional suites for recovering patients, which Hughes says is aimed at relieving some of the pressure put on Royal Inland Hospital. 

“Being able to have a place where people are able to be safely for a short period of time while we assess, and they get stable, and figure out what’s the best place for them to go from there.”

One of the first tenants to move in is Richard St. Goddard, who has been living around Kamloops and on the streets for the last 13 years. 

He says it’ll be a nice change from his living arrangement at the Branch Shelter. 

“40 people all in here would be rather crowded,” he laughs.

Spero House won’t just help get people like Richard back on their feet. It can be a safe space while they go through addiction treatment. 

“For us to be given the opportunity to live in these new units in this new building, and with meals included for the price that it is, it shows that there’s people that care about us.”

With a fresh new place to live, St. Goddard’s next plan is to keep up his clean lifestyle, and get back into the workforce. 

“I’m gonna be the guy that puts the man back in handy. I plan to open up a handyman service.” 

Early next week, some of the people picked to become the first tenants in Spero House will move in, with all tenants moved in by Friday.