A new resource is available to help connect Lower Columbia residents to affordable housing. The Skills Centre’s Executive Director Morag Carter says they’ve just launched findaffordablehousing.ca.
“It identified all of the affordable housing providers and places in the Lower Columbia area. So everywhere from Rossland through Warfield and Trail and out to Montrose and Fruitvale,” explained Carter.
She says the goal was to eliminate as many barriers as possible and make it as simple as possible and the website also includes links to other important programs that are available in the Kootenay-Boundary.
Affordable housing is one of the big priorities the Skills Centre is working to address and is one of the five pillars of the Thriving for All: Lower Columbia Poverty Reduction Plan that was issued in November, 2017.
Rent prices have actually bumped the living wage for the area up to $18.83 per hour.
“The provincial government has put into place all sorts of amazing programs that help with things like childcare. So, we were expecting the living wage to either stay the same or reduce a little bit, and in actual fact what we saw was a 62 cent an hour increase,” explained Carter.
Internet costs and the price of food have also contributed to that but Carter says the big piece is around housing. Based on work from Lower Columbia Affordable Housing Society and Lower Columbia Community Development Team Society, they found a overall 10 to 15 percent increase in rent over the same time last year.
There is good news as BC Housing, the Columbia Basin Trust and other partners are working to build more units. According to Carter the service provides can access the back end of the website and as new units come on stream, they will be added.