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The Columbia Motor Inn in Kamloops will continue to be used as housing for people transitioning out of homelessness.
The Province, through BC Housing, gave $2.5 million to the Ask Wellness Society to purchase the former motel at 575 Columbia Street.
Ask Wellness Executive Director Bob Hughes says the two-story, 24-unit former motel has provided subsidized units for people who can live independently and are transitioning from shelters or supportive housing, since 2018.
“We’ve been — for a number of years — wanting to push further the purchase and the renovation of the site, knowing that we had some stable people that are living in the building and wanted to preserve this on an ongoing basis.”
Hughes says this purchase was about preserving the transitional housing facility in Kamloops, noting the lease with the owners had expired at the end of March 2023.
“For over a couple of years we have been trying to work towards coming up with a price to purchase the property knowing that it needed considerable investments to bring it up to a standard that we could say was quality housing, even though they’re very modest, as it’s a former motel,” said Hughes. “But it was teetering into a position where we had to either walk away or step in and do some significant upgrades to the building, and so that’s where we got to by the end of June.”
Hughes says BC Housing has also given them $2.7 million to complete some “much needed” renovations.
“One of the critical parts for us was negotiating with BC housing around what kind of renovation budget,” he said. “We’ve mapped out a fairly extensive renovation plan that I think will satisfy the city’s requirements around the development permit and that process, as well as creating the units with new flooring, fire suppression system and new kitchen assemblies and heating and cooling that were pretty marginal for the last couple of years.”
Hughes says they are already queued up to begin the renovations, which he believes will be critical to the community.
“This isn’t the first time that we’ve taken a motel and converted it into something that I think the community is supportive of and it helps to address some of the affordability issues in the community.”
Ask Wellness Society will own and operate the building and will continue to receive roughly $250,000 annually from BC Housing for management costs.
