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October 12, 2018 - 3:30 PM
KELOWNA - A Community Town Hall Meeting is scheduled for tomorrow in response to a proposal to build a 52-unit supportive housing project between Spall Road and Orchard Plaza in Kelowna.
“This piece of land is smack in the middle of condo/townhouse complexes inhabited primarily by senior citizens,” neighbourhood resident Dave Bradshaw wrote in an email to iNFOnews.ca. “None of us were consulted as to our thoughts on this but we were all, after they purchased the land, invited to meetings with B.C. Housing, the John Howard Society, Interior Health and the City of Kelowna.”
Bradshaw claimed that similar facilities house up to 88 per cent of tenants who diagnosed mental health illness and 66 per cent struggle with substance misuse. Those numbers are on the John Howard Society website in a report on their 49-unit New Gate Apartment complex.
He said that all Kelowna city council candidates have been invited to the meeting at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 13, at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Hall on Barlee Road.
“We hope for a tremendous turnout on Saturday and we intend to fight against this supportive housing project for as long as it takes to defeat it,” Bradshaw said. “It will be an uphill battle but we have a lot to lose so we are not prepared to back down.”
Calls to the John Howard Society were not returned.
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