Image Credit: ADOBE STOCK

KAMLOOPS - A long-time Kamloops resident says the city’s competitive rental market has pushed her to start looking elsewhere.

Karryann Maki, a grandmother and mother of three, says she has been renting in Kamloops since she was 16, but lost her apartment after losing her job earlier this year—and bouncing back hasn’t been easy.

“I’m in between (friend's) places right now. Out of all the years I have been a mother I have never not had a place,” she says.

According to the most recent report from Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation, Kamloops’s vacancy rate currently sits at 1.1 per cent. The agency reports a healthy vacancy rate should hover around four per cent.

Maki says her two oldest kids no longer live with her but her youngest child still does and has had to stay with relatives while Maki tries to find a two-bedroom apartment in the city.

“I still have a kid that’s supposed to be living with me,” Maki says. “I’m 41 years old, it shouldn’t be this way.”

According to the report from CMHC, the vacancy rate in Kamloops has fluctuated in the last 28 years but has noticeably dropped from 2014 to 2017, causing rental rates to rise as well.

The type of apartment Maki is looking for has a slightly lower vacancy rate than the overall average. Two-bedroom and one-bedroom apartment vacancy rates are at one per cent compared to the 1.1 overall average. CMHC's rental market report shows the average price of a two-bedroom suite across the province is roughly $1,300.

The city has announced affordable housing initiatives over the last few years to help with some of the competitive rent prices in the area. Social and Community Development supervisor Jen Casorso, says the problem with keeping up with the decreasing vacancy rates and rising rental rates has been challenging on a local government level.

"We've made a lot of progress in the last three to five years, but we have more to go," Casorso says, adding that without funding from the provincial government, the municipal government can only do so much.

Maki says she has tried to stay out of shelters for her daughter's sake. Her other option is to leave Kamloops and find an apartment in a different city, something that would be hard for her to do.

"This is my hometown and I want us to stay because this is where my family is," she says.

Maki says she's been searching for jobs that pay more than minimum wage to help keep up with the rising rental costs in the city, but even that has been challenging on its own.

"Trying to find a job that isn't minimum wage is next to impossible," Maki says.

“I feel like I am at the lowest of the low right now," she says. "Nobody should have to live like this."

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