More affordable housing units to cut down on shelters in Kamloops: CMHA

KAMLOOPS — As some of the homeless are moved from Memorial Arena to Merit Place at the former Greyhound bus depot, the operator is already thinking long-term.

Merit Place provides 50 of about 175 spaces for the homeless in Kamloops, but it’s only a temporary shelter. The Kamloops branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) wants more permanent housing solutions to house the more than 200 people in the city without a home.

“That way, we are avoiding what we’ve had for the last little while, which is folks being stuck in shelter,” Alfred Achoba, CMHA Kamloops executive director says. “You start to lose some of those [life or employment] skills that you’ve gained over time. So we need to be proactive.”

CMHA wants more senior housing, supportive housing, and just simply affordable housing for everyone. However, Achoba acknowledges it needs to be a collaborative approach with the City of Kamloops and BC Housing.

“We’re working on a land use analysis now and we’ll be working with BC Housing on that to identify some areas that may be suitable for some additional shelter locations,” Carmin Mazzotta, Kamloops’ social, housing and community development manager says. “Looking at social and community planning principals, so making sure does it have access to health and social services? Does it have access to transit?”

The city says Merit Place will only run until spring of next year, then more space again will be needed. Mazzotta estimates maybe two to three additional sites.

It’s not just shelter space. Mazzotta says the 2016 census indicated that 47 per cent of renters in Kamloops were living in unaffordable housing.

“So that means a pay cheque or an unfortunate life incident away from losing that housing. That is a massive issue and really speaks to the need for affordable rental housing,” noted Mazzotta.

The city says developments like the Sunrise Centre for seniors and John Howard Society’s ‘Diversity Flats’ downtown are a great start, but it wants to work with BC Housing on more projects in the future.

“All municipalities should really try and identify sites, so we can operationalize them,” Nanette Drobot, regional director of operations for BC Housing says. “We have the funding, we have the expertise to do all the renovations required, and we certainly have the support of the non-profit sector who do such an incredible job of providing services to the vulnerable populations and stabilize their lives.”

CMHA says solving the city’s homeless crisis, there needs to be more social housing, recovery housing and overall affordable housing.

“When we do that, then we avoid folks who stay in shelter for so long because that’s what we have in our community. We have people who are averaging six months, more than that in shelter, and that’s not helping with long-term goals.”