FORSETH – Cost of new shelter for the homeless is way out of whack
(Image: Google.ca file photoHomelss)
A STORY by Levi Landry, just the other day in InfoNews, stated:
A former Kamloops RV dealership on the North Shore is poised to spend the next two years as a homeless shelter …
… BC Housing plans to open the 44-bed shelter in late-December. With a total $6.1 million budget, that’s $138,636 per bed for 20 months.
Okay, at first glance ensuring the homeless have somewhere safe, and providing for their needs, seems like a good idea. NOT, however, when you start crunching the numbers!
To start with, the proposal is for 20 months, not two years, although there is an option to extend it. Let’s stick with the 20 months though because that is what’s been agreed to.
Averaging the total $6.1 million budget over that 20-month time frame works out to $305,000/month. That’s a monthly cost of $6,931.82 for each of the 44 people who will be housed and cared for.
Compare that to B.C.’s average monthly mortgage payment — for an entire house — of $2,913.
Compare that to the rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Kamloops at $2,100 per month.
Let’s think about a single mom, with two children, on her own and trying to raise her children with income below the cost of living — in fact likely living at (or below) the poverty level and depending on the food bank to make ends meet.
Are the homeless less deserving than a single mom, or any low-income individual? No, or course not.
I will also acknowledge that I am not comparing apples to apples. However, no matter how you look at it, the cost of this ‘temporary’ project is way out of whack!
With questionable spending like this (and it’s just one example), it’s no wonder our provincial NDP government has sent British Columbia’s debt through the roof!
Those are my thoughts on this … care to share yours?
Alan Forseth is a Kamloops resident. For 40 years he has been active, in a number of capacities, in local, provincial and federal politics, including running as a candidate for the BC Reform Party in the 1996 provincial election. He is a member of the BC Conservative Party.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
I’m still having trouble figuring out $3.5 million in reno costs. Just what are we building here? Nobody can blow through money like government. It’s almost like it isn’t even their money that they’re blowing. Oh, wait….
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We are out of whack that is why the non-relevant Conservative Party of B.C. became quickly relevant and almost won the election. Maybe though our 8 councillors have a more comprehensive and totally plausible explanation for the exorbitant figures and I second John’s comment as well.
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Did not Reid Hamer-Jackson (citizen) ask for accountability on earlier projects similar in nature? Why are there no facts and figures available for comparison? Is there a better way to serve the needs of those who cannot care for themselves?
Did Councillor Concentration Camp throw a monkey wrench into the process of providing a place safe for the residents and safe for those living & working nearby proposed places such as the former Butler lot?
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Ugh,… it amazes me when people speak of the homeless they push the imagery of down-on-their-luck single mothers, kids in tow, starving and cold….cue the violins…
….when the reality is this shelter is going to be a wet-shelter, where drugs are allowed. And in what government system would allow a child to be in the care of a homeless, drug addicted ‘mother’? The child wouldn’t even be a part of the equation… instead it’s a individual who made one too many bad choices that landed them in the position they are in; with mental ailments that are often proven contributes to street-level violence that NOBODY WANTS IN THEIR NEIGHBOURHOOD…!!!
No, don’t use an image that tugs on the most heartstrings. Use the image that people are most aware of… “CRIMINALS”….
Because of Liberal/NDP policy of putting a criminals’ feelings above the overall right of a safe society, people who should be locked up are forced on the street continuing living their hazardous lives. Taking up much needed shelter space for those truly in a dismal situation. Allowing such weak people into the facility only to bully around the weaker people for dominance in the shelter. Forcing good natured homeless back to the street, or seeing the violent criminal-types get kicked out and going to the only place they find, … “our backyards”…
And now the price tag is revealed? Nearly 6 million dollars? To centralize such street-crime and violence…. the big question that should be asked is, “who’s benefiting from that?”.
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Single moms are one of the largest groups of the “housing insecure.” You don’t see them and their kids on the streets b/c they are couch surfing with relatives and friends, car camping in the warmer months, house-sitting if that’s available. Whatever puts a roof over their family’s head.
I know. I was one of them for several months that felt like years. The good thing is that when it was over, my kids just thought we were camping a lot–they didn’t know we were homeless. The other good thing was that we weren’t homeless for long. I got a job, found a cheap house to rent and life went on.
There are many single moms in a far worse position. $6900/month would be a huge windfall for them and they would spend it wisely.
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Just another example of government stupity.
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