Concept design of new four-story building on McCullough Court site on Coldstream Ave. (Submitted image/City of Vernon)

By Pete McIntyre

Affordable housing

Governments and society partner on new rental homes for Vernon seniors

May 28, 2021 | 11:03 AM

The provincial government is providing $5.2 million for a new seniors living facility in Vernon.

Local governments have also done their part to help the project move forward.

Construction has started on the McCulloch II apartments at 3400 Coldstream Ave. which will provide 48 affordable rental homes for seniors in a four-storey building next to the existing McCulloch Court building.

The project will provide 42 one-bedroom homes and six accessible one-bedroom homes for moderate and low-income seniors, including those with a disability. It will be operated by Vernon Pensioner’s Accommodation Society (VPAS).

The society provided the land for the project. The non-profit initiated the project following a housing study conducted in 2018 that showed a shortage of seniors housing in Vernon. The society had received a significant number of applications from seniors seeking affordable housing, which motivated it to apply to BC Housing for project funding.

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The $5.2 million going to the society comes from the province’s Building BC: Community Housing Fund.

The City of Vernon and the Regional District of North Okanagan have contributed a total of $404,000 in grants through waivers of development cost charges.

Seniors are expected to move into their new homes in the summer of 2022.

“VPAS has been exploring and struggling to find ways to help alleviate the huge waiting list for people in need of low income/affordable housing for the past 20 years,” said Ray Ivey, President of VPAS. “Thanks to the anonymous support, the City of Vernon, the province’s Community Housing Fund and BC Housing, we are very pleased to have finally received approval and funding for these much-needed 48 new affordable suites to be constructed right next to McCulloch Court.”

“Our seniors have dedicated their lives to build our communities and our country. It is reassuring to see more supports, especially the housing coming to our community, which is focused on our seniors,” Harwinder Sandhu, MLA for Vernon-Monashee, said.

Vernon mayor Victor Cumming said the city’s rental vacancy rate is currently around 1 per cent, which emphasizes the need to find collaborative and sustainable solutions for new housing projects to match a variety of needs.

“We are thrilled to see the results of this partnership between the province and the VPAS to get shovels in the ground for the development of this much-needed affordable housing development for Vernon seniors,” Cumming remarked.