It seems like whenever I’m asked about what’s coming up; Scotch Creek water, zoning changes or additions, updating our Official Community Plan, my answer is, “We’re waiting for a grant approval”. I’ve been saying that, it seems like ever since I was elected back in 2018. Well, we’ve finally received a positive response from the Province on one of our applications. This grant approval we just received is to perform a Housing Needs Study. You may wonder why we need a housing needs study, don’t we already know we need some affordable rentals and seniors housing? We do, absolutely. But this study opens the doors, and is a provincial prerequisite to further studies such as an updated OCP which is in the work plan for 2023.

A Housing Needs Study, studies what housing we currently have, what is in short supply, and what the community wants to see over the next 5-10 years for new housing. It begins with compiling data about our community; population, ages, household sizes, housing prices and affordability. It’ll move on to determine what bylaws, policies, incentives are currently in place and identify what might need to change. We will ask for community input through interviews, surveys and, hopefully, community meetings. All this information will identify gaps and anticipate needs over the next 5 to 10 years. This could include affordable housing, different kinds of housing (more rentals, housing over retail establishments, townhouses etc), seniors housing and more. The South Shuswap just completed one and if you’re interested you’ll find it on the CSRD website, search Housing Needs.

As we just received the news of the grant (yesterday actually) we haven’t finalized a start date yet but I hope we have it finished by the end of the year. Covid has a hand in all these timelines and patience is important (Ha), but we know we have this funding so it will happen!! One step forward….