B.C.’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing was on hand Monday for the official opening of a new housing complex intended to provide low-income Indigenous elders and seniors a place to call home.
Located at 1811 Spruce, St., Ts’oo Yoh, or House of Spruce, is being operated by the Aboriginal Housing Society of Prince George. The three-storey building contains 27 one-bedroom units with rental rates from $667 to $765 per month. Most, but not all, of the units are now occupied.
Accommodation like this is “desperately needed throughout the province,” Selina Robinson said in a speech to about 30 people in the complex’s courtyard.
“Seniors and elders are struggling to find the kind of housing that they age gracefully in,” she said and went on to note that almost 80 per cent of those surveyed in an April count of homeless people are Indigenous.
“And we know that elders and seniors on fixed incomes are struggling, absolutely struggling, with rising housing costs in British Columbia and that puts them at tremendous risk of homelessness.”
The project was made possible through a partnership among four entities:
• The province provided $4.3 million in capital funding and $1.25 million in construction financing;
• The AHSPG contributed land equity valued at $276,000, and $1 million cash equity;
• The city provided a 10-year municipal tax exemption on the value of the improvements and waived the development cost charges and development fees;
• M’akola Development Services, which guided the project through the process of securing funding and permits, contributed in-kind services of $250,000.
Ts’oo Yoh could be just the beginning as Robinson highlighted the fact that $7 billion over 10 years was committed in February to create 114,000 new homes across the province and noted proposals for Indigenous housing are being accepted right now.
“That’s a very strong hint to get them in,” Robinson added.
Also, starting Sept. 1, more than 17,000 low-income seniors will see their rent supplements increase by an average $930 per year, and 700 new senior households will become eligible for the Shelter Aid for Elderly Renters program.
“We want seniors to be able to stay in their communities, we want them to be able to stay where their supports and their friends and their family are, where they’re familiar and where it’s affordable,” Robinson said.
