Hundreds wait for housing

Photo: Kate Bouey

The price of renting a room in a boarding house in Vernon is now “just as expensive” as the Lower Mainland, said Barb Levesque, executive director of the John Howard Society for the North Okanagan-Kootenay. “We have just been notified by the rooming houses."

“In Vernon, to rent a room in a rooming house with a shared bathroom and a shared kitchen is $525 a month,” said Levesque. “It is comparable to Vancouver and Victoria. There is no difference.”

Levesque said the housing crisis on the Lower Mainland was just as acute in the North Okanagan for the working poor and people on welfare and disability allowances.

“There is a housing crisis. We have exactly the same problems here.”

She said the $525 cost leaves a person on welfare with $75 left to live on per month, while taking more than half the $900 monthly allowance of a person on disability.

“We should think about students and people making the minimum wage. What is a single parent with a child to support to do?”

Meanwhile, there is a growing list of people applying for 39 low-income housing units at the former Journey Inn Motel on 28th Avenue.

“We have 200 people on the waiting list,” said Levesque.

However, power to the building is turned off. Eight people who had been living in the units were moved out this week to allow final renovations and some electrical work in the downtown to be completed.

Levesque said the old motel, to be known as the Blair Apartments, should be ready for people to move into by the end of August.