kamloopsthisweek.com | kamloopsthisweek |
WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2022 | Volume 35 No. 30
#YKASTRONG
Tk’emlúps Kúkpi7 calls pope’s apology a ‘pivotal point’
HIGH RENTAL MARKET IN KAMLOOPS FELT BY ALL MICHAEL POTESTIO
STAFF REPORTER
michael@kamloopsthisweek.com
K
amloops residents at both ends of the economic spectrum are facing challenges in the rental market. Kim Torreggiani, a senior executive at Thompson Rivers University, recently had difficulty finding a new home. She spent the past month going through some 40 listings before finding a place to stay, after she was evicted from her rental of five years, due to her landlords moving in. When she did find a new home, it cost $600 more than her previous rental. Torreggiani’s new place is also farther away from work, meaning higher travel costs added to her higher rent and cost of living. Meanwhile a 67-year-old Kamloops woman told KTW she is struggling to find affordable housing. Shirley, who did not wish to give her last name, is a pensioner. She lives off about $2,500 per month, with $2,200 going to pay her rent at the Country View Motor Inn in Valleyview. Shirley said she does not qualify for subsidized rent. She said it is difficult to purchase groceries and medication, with the few hundred dollars she
has left each month. Shirley said she was evicted in January from her home at Karamar Apartments, where she was paying $1,058 per month in rent. She said she was connected by ASK Wellness with her current two-bed hotel room, which includes a bathroom and fridge. Shirley said she does not believe the hotel room is worth $2,200, but she feels forced to spend it with no where else to go or risk ending up on the streets. She told KTW she inquired as to why the rent was so high and was told it was due to a lack of housing inventory in town. “For $2,200, I could have a mortgage,” Shirley said. KAMLOOPS RENTS SHOWING COMPARISONS TO VANCOUVER Torreggiani described rental prices in Kamloops as high. Out of curiosity, while searching for her new place, she checked the current rental rates in Vancouver. The results, she said, surprised her. She found examples of rental accommodations for the same amount of money as some in Kamloops. She said one of the main reasons she moved back to her hometown of Kamloops from Vancouver seven years ago was the afford-
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MICHAEL POTESTIO STAFF REPORTER michael@kamloopsthisweek.com
ability factor. Kamloops has historically been a much more affordable place to live. Torreggiani said she is now seeing basement suites in Kamloops listed for $2,000 per month. “I can’t wrap my mind around how people think they can charge that,” Torregiani said. “But they’re $2,000 in Vancouver, too.” KTW searched basement suites listed for rent on Kijiji for both Kamloops and Vancouver. The River City yielded 28 results, compared to Vancouver’s 33 rental listings. Many were going for the same monthly rates in Kamloops and Vancouver. The Vancouver rentals ranged from $1,400 to
$3,300 per month, while the Kamloops rentals ranged from $1,000 to $3,000. “The fact we’re narrowing the gap is concerning to me,” Torregiani said. Torregiani said she would expect to pay more to rent in a large city because it has more amenities. She said she worries Kamloops will lose its competitive edge in attracting workers and students, if it can no longer offer an affordable lifestyle. In her role at TRU over the years, Torregiani has touted Kamloops’ affordability to recruit employees. “And that’s not the case anymore,” she said.
Pope Francis’ apology in Canada went further than what he expressed at the Vatican this past spring and contained important acknowledgements survivors of residential schools needed to hear, according to Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Kúkpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir. Casimir led a delegation of Kamloops Residential School survivors via shuttle bus to take part in ceremonies in the Edmonton, Alta. area, during the pontiff’s week-long visit to Canada — a trip she described as a “pivotal point in history.” The trip is in an effort by the Catholic Church to reconcile with Canada’s Indigenous peoples for abuses inflicted by the church-run, federal government institutions. Speaking in Spanish to a large crowd during a ceremony on July 25 in Maskwacis, Francis told the crowd he was sorry and asked forgiveness for the “cultural destruction and forced assimilation” at residential schools. “I am deeply sorry,” he said. “Sorry for the ways many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed Indigenous peoples. I am sorry. I ask forgiveness.” The Tk’emlúps delegation, which consisted of the chief and some 15 residential school survivors, took in that ceremony.
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