Disabled Kamloops woman forced to leave city due to lack of affordable housing
A woman who lived in Kamloops for almost a decade was forced to move a province away when she couldn’t find an affordable home after the house she was renting was scheduled to be demolished to make way for development.
Tammie Giesbrecht has chronic health issues and is on oxygen. Less than a year ago she left her doctors behind, along with her community supports, and friends and neighbours who “knew to check in on her,” after fruitlessly searching for an affordable rental for months.
“Our landlord rented to us for years and let us know we had ten months to find another place, which proved to be impossible,” she said. “He let us stay as long as he could but it came to a point we had to go.”
During the pandemic Giesbrecht’s health took a turn for the worse, and her adult daughter who was living in Blind Bay moved in to help her. Giesbrecht is on a disability income and when they were forced to find a new home, there wasn’t much available on their budget.
“Every time we viewed a place the owners would get us all excited, making us feel we had a shot, that they’d call us and let us know if it’s ours,” she said. “You find out 30 or 40 other people went to that same location to look and you never get a phone call back. It goes to the highest bidder.”
Giesbrecht was temporarily placed in a motel by a non-profit organization, but she didn’t feel safe in an area subject to crime and she didn’t have access to basic features like a kitchenette. The process of losing her home and moving into the motel took a toll on her mental and physical health.
“I’ve lost weight, so much weight, I think I'm around 80 lb. now,” she said. “It was horrible, just the having to leave home and live in that motel, my mental health went down.”
READ MORE: Single mom in Kamloops separated from babies for lack of affordable housing
Last fall, a family member from Calgary offered Giesbrecht and her daughter a room and came to get them. Giesbrecht is grateful, but the living situation isn’t ideal. Her daughter had to find a new job and take a bigger role in Giesbrecht’s care.
“The city is so big and we’re not city girls, it’s intimidating,” she said. “My doctors in Kamloops sent my records over but they don’t know me here. My daughter is my caregiver while I’m trying to find a care worker. She works full time to support us. I don’t want that for her.”
Giesbrecht is still trying to get back to Kamloops to her doctors, friends and community supports, watching the market for affordable housing opportunities.
“I’m looking at a couple of places, and my daughter will have to change jobs again. Trying to figure out how to pay $2,000 for one room and one bath. I’m on a fixed income of $833 per month, what am I supposed to do with that?”
READ MORE: Kamloops renter displaced twice for development projects in just over a year
Giesbrecht’s story is a common one as the housing crisis continues across the country with a lack of affordable rental housing most affecting the lowest 20% of income earners, according to the January 26 Market Rental report by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Higher migration, increased homeownership and students returning to on campus learning increased demand for rental housing in 2022.
According to data from September, 2019, rental vacancy rates have been below 2% in Kamloops and the Okanagan for many years.
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