Part 1 of No Vacancy, an ongoing series about Osoyoos’ lack of housing and the creative measures residents are taking to address it.

By Dale Boyd

Osoyoos Times

Behind the ideal summer vacation in Osoyoos – trying a wine at a tasting bar or getting a bite to eat from a food truck – there are staff behind the counter looking to make a living.

With “Canada’s warmest welcome” and picturesque beaches, Osoyoos appears to be the ideal place to live and work, but service workers crucial to making the summer months run smoothly are struggling to find a place to call their own.

Moving to Canada from France this spring, 29-year-old Lisa Bertrand has already left Osoyoos for one reason: housing.

Working at the tasting bar at Nk’Mip Cellars, Bertrand felt the need to speak out after staying at the staff accommodation project created out of oilfield camp trailers near Spirit Ridge dubbed “the orchard residence.”

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The not-for-profit project which houses 49 individual suites was completed in 2018. The facility was built by a group of local hotel owners looking to give their staff a place to stay – coordinating with the Osoyoos Indian Band, and the Town of Osoyoos providing utility services.

“I don’t think it is OK for anyone anywhere to live in those conditions,” Bertrand said in a phone interview with the Osoyoos Times from Vancouver, where she now lives. “Everyone complains about it, but no one speaks up about it. The people who stay there, most people stay for three weeks or a month and then they move.”

She recalled a stained mattress and floors when she moved into her suite, calling her room “smelly and dirty,” the day she moved in. She looked for another place to rent as soon as she moved into the staff accommodations, but to no avail.

Bertrand described an impossible shared-kitchen situation, holes in the floor, broken air conditioning stuck blasting 24/7. As well, she said the shared bathrooms were often broken, creating a tough scenario for the residents of the often-full 49 suites. Backing up her claims with photos, Bertrand also snapped a picture of a communal chalk board which reads, among other tenant notices: “drunk or not, stop pissing on the floor.”

A sign listing rules for residents of “the orchard residence.” The housing project is oilfield camp trailers containing 49 suites. (Contributed photo)

Bertrand, said there have also been multiple police calls to the residence, “like this time I came out of my bedroom to a fully naked man screaming in the hallway and fighting with a policeman trying to control him and asking for help, or the fact that one of our night security guards had to bring back to consciousness two kids within 10 days because of drug overdose.”

The Osoyoos RCMP confirmed they have responded to only two incidents at the orchard residence this year, one for an intoxicated female on March 21, and one call for an intoxicated male on June 4 who was “causing issues with other staff,” Sgt. Jason Bayda said via email.

These are just some of a laundry list of issues Bertrand put forward, saying she was unable to find out where the rent money, $495 a month including utilities and internet, was going.

“They could do a few things to improve the place and they are not doing them,” Bertrand said.

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Daniel Bibby, executive director for Spirit Ridge and board member on the Osoyoos Employees Housing Society committee, the group managing the facility, said the housing is not the right fit for everyone.

“Ideally everyone has their own apartment, with their own kitchen,” Bibby said. “That’s the ideal scenario. The reality is to provide something at a price that’s affordable for workers; it’s a solution that has some shared common areas and that doesn’t fit for everybody.”

In response to some of the complaints put forward by Bertrand and other tenants, Bibby said the orchard residence has on-site managers, and when employees check out of the residence a full inspection of the suite is done.

One former tenant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity and still works in Osoyoos, moved out of the orchard residence as fast as she could.

“The couple who manage the residence really do try their best to keep it clean. But it’s more than keeping the place clean, it’s the air conditioning all the time, the amenities not working, showers, toilets (the) atmosphere,” she said.

Residents of “the orchard residence,” a housing project for seasonal workers in Osoyoos located near Spirit Ridge Resort, are speaking out about conditions which they describe as poor. Residents say that along with a lack of cleanliness, some amenities in the project don’t work. (Contributed photos)

The former tenant said she also had bed bug bites after moving in. Bibby responded that the issue, if there was one, was addressed.

“We had one tenant who had been travelling across the country and living in their car at the time they got to Osoyoos. There was a potential concern brought to our attention about potentially having bed bugs,” Bibby said.

Management “proactively” brought in an inspection team and “it’s not an issue,” Bibby said.

“There’s no perfect housing solution. This particular unit has a live-in manager on site who also does the cleaning of the public areas. Each tenant is responsible for cleaning up after themselves. You can imagine that can be a little bit difficult with 49 people sharing a common area,” Bibby said.

Regardless of the conditions, the issue of staff housing is apparent as the orchard residence stayed full this summer, and Bibby said even with the orchard residence and other staff accommodation solutions, there are still staffing spots to be filled.

“As we move forward we know we need to work on projects like this. We had all 49 units full from April onward,” Bibby said. “Most employers have other facilities as well that they rent. Spirit Ridge has two other buildings as well that we manage. You know, I was over 20 employees short at points in the summer. If we had more housing it would be helpful.”

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Boundary-Similkameen MLA Linda Larson asked town council at the committee of the whole meeting on Sept. 3 if there was any intention to convert the orchard residence to snowbird housing in the winter. But Larson herself acknowledged, at the same meeting, what she heard in talks with local pub and restaurant owners was not a glowing endorsement for the orchard residence.

“They did not appear to be very happy with the accommodation that did end up being built. The ATCO trailers or whatever. Apparently it was not as pleasant inside as it should be, or they thought it should be, and still not enough. And I think the bottom line is: not enough,” Larson said.

Director of planning and development services for the town, Gina MacKay, responded to Larson by calling the orchard residence a “successful project.”

“In a recent meeting with Glen Harris from the Watermark he indicated it has been successful, although they could fill it twice again,” MacKay said. “Yes, we are going to be looking at opportunities for housing projects in the community.”

For Bertrand who intended to work in the wine industry in Osoyoos, it is too late. She has a job in Vancouver and recently moved into her new home there.

“I was supposed to work until the end of October, and I love my job, but the reason why I left is because I just couldn’t … couldn’t bear living in the situation I was living in. That’s the only reason why I left early,” Bertrand said.