Smithers and Telkwa receive housing grant

The province is giving some parts of the Bulkley Valley some money to develop housing needs.

Smithers will be receiving almost $20,000 dollars and Telkwa will be receiving $15,000. The grant allows the town to perform a housing needs assessment. The study will allow the town to determine what the housing needs are currently and what it will be in the future.

This will help the council create policy’s and programs so, every resident has affordable housing.

Mayor Taylor Bachrach said Smithers has never had a solid assessment for the towns housing needs.

“ This community-wide assessment will give us hopefully a really clear picture of where our community stands and we know along the housing spectrum with emergency shelters on one end of the spectrum and market single-family homes at the other end of the spectrum, we know there are areas of that housing spectrum that are less well-served then it could be,” said Bachrach.

In council, that is one fundamental topic that councilors spend a lot of time on. Council is hoping the assessment will guide them in the right direction to help the housing needs.

Bachrach also said Smithers has made a lot of progress when it comes to housing.

“We’ve seen several affordable housing developments constructed, one example is Goodacre Place located adjacent to the town hall, which is providing homes for 24 people in our community that are either homeless or at risk for homelessness,” said Bachrach.

The next deadline for more funding for the assessment is Nov.29, 2019.

Data from the assessment, like demographics and the household income available online at no cost.