By: Nicole Perry December 16, 2023
Concerns grow in the Kamloops community and throughout B.C. as affordable housing options grow scarce. Lindsay Harris has been analyzing the housing crisis and founded the non-profit Propolis Housing Cooperative in 2019 with a board of volunteers which she heads as president.
In May 2023, the Province of B.C. issued housing target orders for 10 municipalities with urgent housing needs under the Housing Supply Act. Kamloops was one, receiving a mandate to meet 4236 new housing units over the next five years.
“They also specify the proportion of those units that need to be below market rentals,” Harris says. “A project like Propolis is positioned to contribute to those below market rental numbers.”
She says that community support for this project and other solutions is key. “It’s really important to note that Kamloops is just so far behind where we need to be, to be even close to meeting those targets.”
In the community of Kamloops, 62 per cent of respondents in a 2020 housing needs assessment revealed personal challenges finding and maintaining housing. The biggest areas of concerns identified was the supply/availability of rental housing, the supply/availabilty of affordable ownership housing and housing-related costs.
According to research collected by TRU early this year, 46.8 per cent of renters, and 13.7 per cent of homeowners, are living in unaffordable housing. Vacancy rates in the city were specified as under one per cent while a healthy vacancy rate is three to five per cent.
Through her work at the Food Policy Council, Harris says she’s had the chance to talk to many different people about their perspectives on the housing crisis. As a researcher, she says “I like to do a lot of like first hand research and spent a lot of time like looking at the real estate market in town.”
While developing Propolis as a housing cooperative, Harris says they looked at the housing market data in Kamloops, noticing especially the low vacancy rates and high rental pricing. “Our rents are going up to levels that are unaffordable even to people in our community with good jobs,” she says.
According to 2021 census data, The median and average renter household income levels are lower in Kamloops than in B.C. as a whole. Additionally, 37 per cent of Kamloops renters and 38 per cent in British Columbia spend over 30 per cent of their income on housing costs.
As the population of BC has increased, the Kamloops population has grown as well. “There’s a very severe housing crisis in the lower mainland, which is leading to an influx of people into the interior,” Harris says. In 2016, the population of Kamloops was 90 280. In 2021 it rose to 97 902 people.
Harris says Propolis has acquired a property on the North Shore of Kamloops on the condition that they secure the funding they need. The community bond campaign is set at $1.1 million to purchase the building.
“We’ve seen a lot of good community response to it,” she says. “But also it’s the first time that any group has ever done a community bond campaign in Kamloops before.”
“Anyone who’s sort of like in a position to invest even a little bit could get involved,” Harris says, explaining that the campaign is based on investments starting at $1 thousand. “They will receive their principal back with interest at the end of the term of the loan which is a three year term.”
“Our community was struggling with a housing crisis, an affordability crisis and a climate crisis all at the same time,” says Harris. “Affordability and sustainable building can really go hand in hand.”
Cooperative housing is a model where members purchase a moderately priced share and pay a monthly affordable fee for housing. Vice-president of Propolis, Miles Pruden, owns Nexbuild Construction and has expertise in building affordable, net zero buildings.
“I really think that everyone, city staff, city council, all recognize the importance of acting on the housing crisis,” Harris says.“But often, you know, we don’t always know what steps to take.”
She says they’ve been working to build a partnership with the City of Kamloops, as affordable co-op housing relies on partnerships. The city has been supportive from the start, she says, by closing a roadway behind the property to support the development.
“Our proposed building will have commercial space on the ground floor, which will include a redesigned performing art space for the Effie Arts Collective to move into,” she says. “And then we’ll have residential, 50 units of affordable residential above.”
For the future, she says they’ll look to accessing existing financing programs at the provincial and federal levels.
The Province of B.C. declared an action plan to address housing problems, which includes increasing middle-income housing. In the Homes for People plan, housing co-ops are identified as providing “secure housing for people with mixed incomes and needs, without the pressures of a large down-payment.” The Province plans to reinvigorate this sector.
An investment of $1 billion from the federal government will go towards the Affordable Housing Fund, supporting non-profits and co-op housing starting in 2025-26. This was announced in a 2023 Fall Economic Statement that also revealed a $309.3 million investment funding the Co-operative Housing Development Program.
Harris says, “Co -op housing is a way for your average citizen in Kamloops to say, hey, I want to get involved in helping to solve the housing crisis.”