Kelowna is the latest B.C. community to get housing relief from a provincial tiny homes project, but it may not be the last.
Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said the Kelowna project could provide a template to help individuals dealing with homelessness in Interior communities beyond its biggest city.
On Thursday (Oct. 12), Kahlon announced BC Housing will create 120 housing units in Kelowna “within a few months” for individuals living in encampments or otherwise unhoused. These 6o-square-foot tiny homes spread across a handful of yet-to-be-finalized sites will mark Kelowna as the first Interior community to use tiny homes, but others may soon follow.
“So right now, we have tiny homes in Victoria and in Duncan and certainly, what we are looking to do here is learn from Kelowna,” Kahlon said.
Conditions differ in Kelowna from those other locations, he added.
“It’s colder in the winter, a little bit warmer in the summers…and it’s going to be very important for us to see how we roll out, but also the approach that is being taken.”
Different types of people require different types of housing and some individuals dealing with homelessness may be better suited for more traditional forms of supportive housing, he said.
“If it’s successful, we will look to do it (tiny homes) in more communities.”
Kahlon said the “allure” of tiny home is speed while noting the province has been working with Kelowna on this issue for months.
“We can get these units on much quicker than we can traditional housing units,” he added. “We’re just waiting for the city to just finalize where the locations will be. (So) I’m confident that we’re going to be able to get those units moving really quickly once the locations are finalized.
’“But this is work that has been happening for some time. This is not something that we just started weeks ago. “
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Kahlon made these comments in the presence of Kelowna Mayor Dyas. His community joins Prince George in having signed a memorandum of understanding with the province spelling out respective roles and responsibilities in protecting people sheltering outdoors and moving them indoors, while breaking up encampments.
While it is not clear how much these tiny homes will cost, the Homeless Encampment Action Response Temporary Housing (HEARTH) program will fund them. They will be a temporary solution, so BC Housing can work with Kelowna to identify new permanent supportive housing options.
“There is a critical lack of housing, which is pushing more and more people into homelessness,” Kahlon said. “The situation in encampments here and other cities is extremely concerning,” he added, noting encampments are not safe for anyone. “They’re not safe for the people in communities, they’re not safe for small businesses nearby, and most of all, they’re not safe for the people who are living in them.”
Dyas welcomed the provincial involvement, expressing hope that the public will support the project.
“But I also know that we hear a lot of concern within our community about the cold weather coming,” Dyas said, adding Kelowna is trying to build all forms of housing.
While homelessness is perhaps most visible in Metro Vancouver and Greater Victoria, recent figures also show significant spikes in homelessness in large and small communities across B.C.’s many regions.
Cities have unique needs and the provincial response needs to be flexible, Kahlon added.
He also addressed the question of which other communities in B.C.’s Interior might join Kamloops as communities targeted for additional housing. (The other nine communities announced earlier this year are in Greater Victoria, Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley).
“I’ll say that we’re not picking communities that need targets by just meeting with them and randomly putting them on lists,” he said. “We’re using data to decide what communities need the housing the most.”
The province is expected to announce the next 10 communities targeted for additional housing in the coming months.
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wolfgang.depner@blackpress.ca
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