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By Victor Kaisar

Housing Targets

BC Government ‘encouraged’ by Kamloops’ progress on housing targets

Jan 11, 2025 | 4:20 PM

KAMLOOPS — BC Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon says while the City of Kamloops has missed its first-year housing targets, he “appreciates” the effort that was made.

Kamloops was tasked with building 4,236 net new housing units by Sept. 2028, with 679 of those units required to come online by Sept. 30, 2024. The city fell short of that goal as only 449 net new units were built in the first year.

“Although the year one housing target was not met, I note that 66 per cent of the year one target, was delivered,” Kahlon said, in a Dec. 17 letter to city council.

“Kamloops has shown progress by developing and reinforcing partnerships that will result in more housing being built, such as establishing a memorandum of understanding with BC Housing and identifying sites for transfer to the Kamloops Community Land Trust.”

In that letter, which is going before Tuesday’s (Jan. 14) city council meeting, Kahlon also said he is “encouraged” by the work being done in Kamloops to meet the housing targets.

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“I am encouraged that 1,768 new units are in the development pipeline, which, if delivered, would support Kamloops in meeting its year two housing target of 1,414 units,” Kahlon said.

The city is required to build an additional 735 housing units by Sept. 30, 2025 for a two-year total of 1,414 units. Based on Kahlon’s statement, if all of those units are built, the City of Kamloops will be well on track to meeting its year three goal of 2,233 housing units.

Breakdown of the Kamloops housing targets by year. (Image Credit: City of Kamloops)

But in a bid “to ensure progress continues to be made” Kahlon, who is also the Minister of Municipal Affairs, asked the city to continue reporting on its progress of its above initiatives in detail as follows:

• Identifying sites for transfer to the Kamloops Community Land Trust to provide housing for residents with low to moderate incomes.
• Partnering with the Kamloops Community Land Trust, BC Builds, and a local developer to construct 90 units of middle-income housing, currently in the preliminary funding approval stage with the site prepared for construction.
• Continuing to work with BC Housing through a memorandum of understanding to advance non-market housing projects that will result in purpose-built complex care housing, temporary transitional housing, supportive housing, and subsidized affordable rental housing.

The next housing target report outlining the progress made between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, 2024 is due by Jan. 15, 2025. Progress made between Jan. 1 and March 31 will then be due by April 15, while progress made between April 1 and June 30 is due by July 15.

“Going forward, I trust all efforts will be made by the city to create the necessary conditions to support the delivery more homes for people and meet its targets,” Kahlon said.