OSOYOOS TIMES-October 21, 2009

By Paul Everest – Osoyoos Times

The deadline for expressions of interest from organizations looking to administer Osoyoos’s Desert Valley Care facility has come and gone and, for the moment, no one seems interested.
In January, the provincial government announced that the 10-unit centre on Jonagold Place had been purchased— at a final cost of $592,500— for the purposes of supportive housing for the homeless or people with mental health issues.
The centre’s previous residents moved to the Mariposa Gardens care facility last fall.
BC Housing indicated that a local non-profit group would be chosen to run the facility and in September, a call for “Expressions of Interest to Non-Profit Societies” was put out with a deadline for entries of Oct. 16.
Groups that were interested in running the facility were asked to come to a Sept. 14 meeting at the centre to discuss the expressions of interest process.
Representatives from three organizations attended the meeting.
As of Oct. 19, all three have said they did not apply to BC Housing to run the facility because there is no provincial money available to operate the centre.
Pastor Phil Johnson of the Osoyoos Baptist Church said while the province was going to cover the facility’s taxes and any major renovations, it would be up to whatever group took on the task of running the centre to pay for utilities.
Without government cash, he added, such costs would be too high for the church to bear, especially in the winter.
Johnson also said the church’s “plate is too full” right now as it deals with renovations to its new home on Hwy. 97 as well as other community-based obligations.
The church’s plan for the centre, Johnson said, was to use six or seven of its rooms as a hostel or to provide low-cost accommodations for summer workers.
That revenue would then be used to pay for the centre’s supportive housing component.
But with the summer now over, any organization would have to use its own money to keep the centre running until operating cash could be generated next summer.
Johnson said the South Okanagan Similkameen Brain Injury Society, which also attended the Sept. 14 meeting, had expressed an interest to co-operate with the church in running the centre.
Dave Head, the society’s chief executive officer, said his organization shied away from the opportunity to run the centre for similar reasons.
He said because there was so little financial support pledged from the government, the society, a non-profit group, decided against pursuing the expression of interest.
Discussions did take place between the church and the society about running the facility, Head added, and the idea of renting out some of the centre’s rooms did come up.
But in the end, the society decided it would be difficult to get enough people to fill the beds and bring in sufficient operating revenue.
And, Head said, the society is unsure of the need for so many supportive housing beds in the Osoyoos area.
The only other group represented at the Sept. 14 meeting was the local branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association.
The association’s executive director, Terry Crawford, said her organization had considered running the centre to provide housing and support for people with mental health issues.
Ultimately, however, the association did not respond to BC Housing’s call for expressions of interest because, Crawford said, the province was not going to provide operating funds.
A telephone request from the Osoyoos Times to BC Housing for information about whether other organizations had expressed any interest in running the centre, and for details about what BC Housing will do now that the expressions of interest deadline has passed, was not returned before press time.
Johnson said the church may consider running the facility when the winter’s over.
That way, he said, the church could generate operating cash over the summer and also look into other sources of funding.
If the church did run the facility, members of the congregation with experience in working with the homeless, people with mental health issues or people with drug and alcohol dependency problems would stay at the centre.
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