Thompson Rivers University is offering students living in motels along Columbia St. West that have been designated nuisance properties by the city a relocation bursary out of concern for their health and safety.
“Students have the right to live anywhere they choose and often base their choices on affordability [but] we are concerned about the health and well-being of TRU students living at these properties,” said Christine Adam, TRU’s Dean of Students.
“If you are currently residing at one of these properties and you are not currently bound by a tenancy agreement (or some other type of contract) or if your tenancy agreement is coming to an end and you would like to explore options for alternate accommodations, TRU would like to assist you in securing alternate accommodations.”
The bursary will be up to $750 for on-campus housing with some flexibility for monthly payment options. For students moving to new off-campus housing, the bursary will be up to $400.
“Its really to help alleviate initial expenses with having to move, with having to break perhaps a contract that they have where they are currently living and enter into a new one,” Adam told NL News, in an interview. “As long they are living in one of those properties, they qualify.”
She says says university staff first reached out to students by email in late December.
“In the course of it being exams and holidays and everything else, we don’t believe that message really got in front of them, so we went back out with more information about bursary amounts, feeling that that might put them in a better position to make a decision around this,” she said.
Interested students are asked to contact TRU Residence for more details.
The motels in question are listed below:
- Star Lodge (775 Columbia Street West)
- Desert Inn (755/765 Columbia Street West)
- Knights Inn (625 Columbia Street West)
- Columbia Motor Lodge (575 Columbia Street West)
- Ramada Inn (555 Columbia Street West)
- Hospitality Inn (450/500 Columbia Street West)
- Panorama Inn (610 Columbia Street West)
- Best Western Plus (660 Columbia Street West)
- Grandview Hotel (463 Grandview Terrace)
- Acadian Motor Inn (1390 Columbia Street, downtown)
TRU is offering a relocation bursary out of concern for the health and safety of students living along Columbia St West in the locations declared nuisance properties by the City of Kamloops. Details at https://t.co/dy4Ax0PX2D #mytru #kamloops
— TRUSU (@TRUSU15) January 29, 2021
