Conversations about housing in Osoyoos are always tinged with a sense of despair.

When someone makes a Facebook post on a local rental page stating that they’re looking to move to the area, a flood of people comment saying, “good luck, there’s nothing available.” 

Yet even for many people who are longtime locals, finding a stable housing situation is a battle.

Allison Morris moved to Osoyoos from Salmon Arm, B.C. last summer. She drove down with her holiday trailer, hoping that it would be a temporary living solution. Now, nearing her one year mark of moving to town, she’s still parked at the Nk’mip campgrounds with her partner and her two dogs. 

She was living on the campgrounds on and off during the summer and steady throughout the winter. It was harder during the colder months, she recalls. Her furnace stopped working at one point, and she had to buy a new one while also sparing some expenses on insulating the outside of the trailer. 

Throughout her time there, Morris said she has also been forced to move around to different campsites many times after there’s been a booking for her site. Shifting all her stuff to a different site can take upward of an hour. And as a person living with a disability, Morris says she’s been struggling with the instability of her current lifestyle.

“The sad thing is I can’t even find a bachelor suite let alone a two bedroom and I don’t even need a two bedroom anymore, but I can’t even find a bachelor suite to take,” said Morris.

Although there are a number of homes on sale, she says that people like her cannot afford to buy a place and just need more affordable rentals. 

The search has been thorough. Morris said she’s looked everywhere, speaking to realtors, trying to find a place through word of mouth, Facebook rental groups, talking to people who own a house and could potentially rent a room, and apartment buildings. “But there’s nothing. There’s absolutely nothing,” she said. 

Unfortunately, moving out of town is not an option either. 

“With my health issues that I’ve had, I have to be here because this is where my doctor is,” explains Morris. “I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. It’s not so much that it’s not affordable. It’s that there’s nothing; that’s what we need here is more affordable housing for the people that are barely making ends meet.”

At the moment, Morris is even unsure where she will be for the summer because the Nk’mip Campground fills up for the season and she cannot be guaranteed a spot regardless of how long she has already been there. 

“I’ve got two kids, but they’re both living in Salmon Arm…I can’t have two kids living with me in my holiday trailer, they won’t even come and visit me right now because there’s just no room in the trailer for everybody,” says Morris. 

She explains that due to her health issues she can’t even drive up to Salmon Arm herself to visit them. The last time she saw her two teenagers was during Christmas time.

“It’s a killer knowing that they’re that close, and I can’t do it,” she says. 

Morris says that moving to Osoyoos has been a fresh start for her in some ways, but has been deeply frustrated in struggling to find a place to live.