Families with sick children in BC will be given an additional helping hand in the next five years, as land has now been secured for a second Ronald McDonald House in Vancouver.
The accommodation is something out-of-town families rely on when they spend time in Vancouver while their child undergoes medical care at the BC Children’s Hospital.
Ronald McDonald House BC and Yukon branch CEO Richard Pass says they have purchased three lots of land for the new house, located roughly five minutes from the first house in Vancouver.
“It’s on the corner of Willow Street and 33rd Avenue, just off hospital property. It is about a five/six-minute walk from the new location to the BC Children’s Hospital or the BC Women’s Hospital.”
Pass says they are now working with the City of Vancouver to rezone the density of the site, in hopes of maximizing the amount of families that will be able to stay in the new house.
“The (rezoning) process is typically about 16 to 18 months. We’re optimistic that we’ll get through it in less time,” said Pass.
“We’ve already kicked off our fundraising and to raise the funds so that hopefully by the time zoning is done, we will be able to break ground and start this. With COVID in the way, I feel like we’re kind of behind where I’d like to be in the process, so we want to get at it, there’s families who need it.”
Pass says the hope is to have the new Ronald McDonald House open by the Spring of 2028 to act as a long-stay home for families.
“The new house will have a mix of studio style and one and two-bedroom fully contained suites so that the long-stay families can have more amenities that will serve them in a more unique way than we’re able to at the moment.”
The move to create a second house for families of sick children comes after a feasibility study showed a need to double its support, up to 150 families a night.
“What we found since we opened the (first) house in 2014 is that so many of our families stay 150 nights up to two years and this is their home. A lot of the times, the long-stay families in that situation are post-transplant, so as wonderful as our facility is currently, it’s studio-style suites that we have for the families,” explained Pass.
Pass estimates they’ll need to raise roughly $ 96 million to replenish the reserves from the land purchase and build the home.