Plan for low-cost housing in works for young people

Kelowna Daily Courier 12/28, 2009
An affordable housing complex for older teens and young people is being planned by the Okanagan Boys and Girls Club. The multi-storey building might contain as many as 40 suites for young people hoping to put their troubled past behind them and learn to live independently. “A project like this would be one of the best things the club could do to help young people,” Boys and Girls Club vice-president Ed Egli said Sunday. Plans for the project are still being developed, but the idea has the support-in-principle from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, as well as various municipal officials. “We don‘t have any land yet, and we‘re a long ways from breaking ground,” Egli said. “But we think it‘s important to provide young people with safe and secure accommodation.”

The club already has some residential services for young people. For a number of years, it has owned a downtown home where several young people can stay at a time. A club employee is always at the home. “They‘ve helped me out and watched over me,” said Sarah Freedman, 17, who has lived in the home for the past six months. She has a job at a restaurant, but doesn‘t have a lot of extra cash. “I do not have a lot of money for food, only $200 a month to spend on food and other necessities,” said Freedman, who was the recipient of a Christmas hamper. The downtown residence is also home to Meghan Dalton, 18. She has recently come off income assistance, and is also working part-time while going to school in a trades program. Meghan said she lives off sandwiches, and extra food that came in a Christmas hamper freed up some of her money to buy other items through the Christmas season. The Be an Angel fund has raised more than $95,000 so far this year for the Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs, well in excess of the $75,000 goal. But donations are still being gratefully accepted.