Saying he’s been getting good “buy-in” from City Hall, BC’s Housing Minister says he’s confident Kamloops is going to be able to hit his ministry’s new housing targets under the government’s new Housing Affordability Act.

Ravi Kahlon tells NL News the over 42-hundred new units which will be required in Kamloops over the next 5-years is an achievable target, suggesting it should provide more options for both renters and buyers.

“The housing we’re talking about isn’t necessarily to welcome a whole bunch of people from outside coming in,” Kahlon told the NL Noon Report on Wednesday, a day after unveiling the housing targets for Kamloops and nine other municipalities in BC.  “Yes, some additional people will come to Kamloops. We know that there’s going to be growth in Kamloops. But it’s also to make sure that we have the housing for the people that are already there.”

Kahlon says the province will also continue to provide additional supports to complement the new housing, including more money for infrastructure and schools.

“The reality is that when we have this conversation around housing, the first thing that comes up from people is ‘well, what about health care, what about schools, what about our roads,'” said Kahlon. “We need to do both. We need to invest in that infrastructure, both the hard and social infrastructure, but we also need to have housing. It shouldn’t be a conversation of one versus the other.”

Kahlon also suggests it will be up to the City of Kamloops to decide where new housing will be built throughout the community.

“My personal opinion always is that you want to have the housing mixed within the community. It creates a healthy and vibrant community. People get a sense of community,” suggested Kahlon.  “But if you’ve got a downtown core where you can put additional housing, of course you should use that opportunity as well.”

However, BC’s Housing Minister also warns if the City of Kamloops starts falling short of the progressive housing targets his ministry has laid out, the province does maintain the right to step in and take control to meet its own goals.

“I’m confident that Kamloops understands, the staff there [at Kamloops City Hall] understand that important steps need to be taken,” said Kahlon. “Part of the legislation is about a 6-month check-in to see if the local government is actually taking this seriously. If not, we have the ability to bring in somebody independent to do an assessment of what the issue is, what barriers might exist… or maybe even come to a conclusion that there’s no interest [in hitting the targets]. In that case, we will step in and make appropriate decisions.”

A majority of the new units in Kamloops – 2,642 – will need to be either studio or one bedroom.

Another 739 will need to be two bedroom units, with the final 854 consisting of at least three bedrooms.

A total of 1,320 of the 2,227 rental units will need to be at below market rents for Kamloops, with the other 907 offered at market rent.