Sports fields

Recent letters to the editor paint a bleak picture of people subsisting on minimum wage while searching for affordable rental housing. Children and pets are often an impediment to finding a rental home. One family in the news resorted to camping as a stop-gap measure.  In a letter to the editor earlier this month, Mayor Colin Basran wrote: "To encourage more rental housing stock in Kelowna, the city offers property developers financial incentives to build. The Rental Housing Grants program provides up to $320,000 in annual grants to offset development cost charges for purpose-built rental housing projects."  
 
Last month I learned from a city official that Kelowna has 71 sports fields. More are planned. Most, if not all, public schools also have sports fields.  Because of the extra maintenance they require to keep everyone safe playing ball, the fields likely consume a large portion of the annual parks budget.  It is doubtful that fees paid by users offset the cost by more than 33%. But the City of Kelowna is besotted with sports fields, never mind their cost.
 
If there is funding to maintain 71 sports fields, another $320,000 per year could be found by reducing the maintenance budget of fields. If twenty of the fields were allowed to lie fallow - perhaps allowing people with dogs to enjoy them - the maintenance cost saving would provide the funds for more assisted living spaces. Kelowna needs people to fill low-income service jobs, so it is reasonable to help low income families with the cost of housing.
 
The twenty sports fields removed from the current 71-field inventory could be replaced by school fields which are rarely used when school is out throughout the summer. Sports field users would still be accommodated, and low-income families could have a home more suitable than a tent. 

Helen Schiele