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Kamloops family of 6 stuffed into 2 bedroom to afford rent

A Kamloops resident's family of six is living in a two-bedroom rental with no other affordable options available in the community.
A Kamloops resident's family of six is living in a two-bedroom rental with no other affordable options available in the community.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED

A family of six is living in a crammed two-bedroom rental in Kamloops because they can’t find any other affordable options. 

The mom, who will remain anonymous, has four children ages 10, 9, toddler and 9 months old, living in a cramped top floor of an old house downtown that costs $2,400 per month, not including utilities.

“My partner and I are losing the battle to pay bills every month,” she said.

The mom's long-time boyfriend is currently in Alberta after recently getting employed to work on the pipeline there, but he is also searching for an affordable place for the family to live there.

They are planning to move a province away, leaving behind their community, friends and extended family members, and pulling the kids from their schools and sports teams, for a bigger rental at a lower cost.

“We can’t find anything affordable here and we need more bedrooms,” she said. “It costs $1,800 or $1,900 for four-bedroom rentals in Alberta.

“I don’t want to leave our life here, but I feel like a failure as a mom because I can’t give my kids their own bedrooms and a life they deserve.” 

READ MORE: Penticton healthcare worker and kids on the brink of homelessness

Currently, there isn’t any room for the kids to have personal space, or to share time in the kitchen together or to even host a birthday party.

“It isn’t fun, we are bumping into each other when we are walking, there is no getting away from each other,” the mom said. “Now it is wintertime I can’t kick the kids outside when they need some separation from each other.

“There are storage bins piled up everywhere and clothes piled up in corners, I don’t have space for anything.”

The family has been living in the rental for just over a year, prior to that they were renting a large house in Kamloops, but the landlords sold it. They were able to obtain the big rental a couple of years ago when there were fewer people looking to rent, but this time was a much different experience.

The mom said she applied to rent at roughly 50 places in Kamloops and ended up desperately grabbing the one offer she got which was obtained through having mutual friends.

“I would go to view a place and be told a hundred other people were viewing and applying for it too,” she said. “On a couple of occasions I was told having four kids was a reason for not renting to us.”

READ MORE: HOUSING CRISIS: Family of 5 forced to live in small Vernon motel room

Upon moving from the big house, she spent weeks downsizing, selling off furniture, appliances, clothes and whatever else she could part with and a year later, she is still selling things in an online marketplace group to make more room and a couple of extra dollars.

She said her current landlords are excellent but there isn’t enough room so they will be leaving at the end of the tenancy.

In the meantime, she is still trying to catch up on bills she accrued while in the middle of moving while her partner was on EI before he got hired in Alberta. She has two loans in collections and said every time they are close to catching up on bills, another one arrives.

She tried doing a food delivery job to make extra money but gas prices and the cost of daycare took away most of the profits.

She uses the food bank and every other resource the city offers when she needs it, and rides the bus for transportation.

For Christmas this year the youngest two kids are getting gifts from the charity organization Christmas Amalgamated. The older boys are getting a different kind of gift.

“We are basically using money earned to pay off bills and we talked to the older boys about Christmas,” the mom said. “They will get some gifts from their biological dad and their Nana but there won’t be too much until we get to Alberta. Then they will get money to decorate their new rooms.”

READ MORE: HOUSING CRISIS: Kamloops mom and kids in rough place after losing home

The stress of the tight living situation and financial struggles is affecting her mental health. She was recently prescribed antidepressants to curb her emotional highs and lows.

“There is a lot of stress trying to keep everything together,” she said. “It is hard to stop thinking about things and I’m not sleeping at night worrying about the future for my kids.”

The Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation’s October 2021 rental survey showed the vacancy rate in Kamloops at 0.9%. It's considered healthy at four per cent.

According to Statistics Canada data from the 2021 census released Sept. 21, more than one-third of renters in Kamloops paid more than 30% of their income on rental costs.

This story was changed on at 1:24 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022 to remove the subject's name after she expressed regrets for personal reasons. 

READ MORE: Putting 'slumping' Kamloops, Okanagan real estate prices into perspective


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