About 20 people sheltering at the Seabreeze Inne on Salt Spring Island will still have a home for Christmas and into mid- February.
The Lady Minto Hospital Foundation, which is acquiring the hotel to address a severe housing shortage for staff, is delaying its possession date until Feb. 15, hoping it will give the province and local community services agencies extra time to find alternate accommodations for residents.
The $4-million deal between the hospital foundation and hotel owner Bob Ma was expected to be complete by Dec. 31, but the foundation extended its condition-removal deadline, pushing back the possession date.
That’s allowed B.C. Housing to continue renting the building as shelter space for two more months while it explores other housing options for the residents.
Adam Olsen, MLA for Saanich North and the Islands, said he was thankful the Lady Minto Hospital Foundation has deferred possession. “Housing is incredibly challenging on Salt Spring and this will provide time for government and non-government agencies to find suitable accommodation for those who may be displaced by the sale of the hotel,” he said.
Salt Spring Island Community Services had wanted to purchase the Seabreeze with funding from B.C. Housing, but the government agency opted not to buy the property after renting it on three-month contracts since the pandemic began.
The Seabreeze was then put on the market as a hotel. That’s when the hospital foundation stepped up to make an offer to purchase the property for staff housing. Lady Minto Hospital has been struggling to fill 30 vacant positions — everything from cleaning staff and cooks to technicians and nurses — on an island where any type of available housing is extremely scarce. The hospital foundation plans to convert the Seabreeze’s 28 rooms into 14 to 16 rental apartments for staff.
“The option was to let the Seabreeze revert to tourist accommodation, or to try and keep it as a community housing asset,” said hospital foundation executive director Roberta Martell. “Increasing the number of rental units will be important to the island and invaluable to the hospital.”
Martell said there is a false perception that the temporary housing operating out of the Seabreeze is closing because the foundation is buying the inn, when the reality is that it’s closing because it wasn’t purchased by either B.C. Housing or Salt Spring Community Services for that use.
Neither organization was available to speak by press time, but B.C. Housing sent a statement saying that while the delay offers “some relief,” tenants remain concerned about their housing situation.
It said B.C. Housing is working to ensure no one is displaced if the hospital foundation takes over the inn. “We are currently looking at a number of options and doing our due diligence to determine the most appropriate and cost-effective long-term housing solutions for these tenants and to address the issue of homelessness in the Salt Spring community.”
Martell said she believes B.C. Housing’s goal is to fund a custom-built supportive-housing facility. “For the sake of so many vulnerable people on Salt Spring, we look forward to seeing progress on that project sooner rather than later,” she said.
The hospital foundation has launched other housing initiatives, including a grant to support rental of a “landing pad” to house newly hired hospital staff, and the creation of an online rental database at ladymintofoundation.com/hip.
Hospital foundation board chair Dave Taylor said in a statement that the situation is shining a light on the need for “focused co-ordination on housing.”
“This is a time not for conflict, but for collaboration,” he said.
Cherie Geauvreau, chair of Wagon Wheel Housing Society, a grassroots group committed to ending poverty and homelessness, is also working with the foundation to find solutions. “Only as a community can we make headway on our housing situation, because it’s the only way real solutions can happen,” she said.
