Are you a New Westminster property owner with a spare basement suite or empty condo?
A grassroots movement to find short-term accommodations for health-care workers is catching on across the country – and organizers are now looking for temporary housing for front-line workers at Royal Columbian Hospital.
Mary Simpson, Vancouver coordinator for the Healthcare Workers Housing initiative, noted in an email that Royal Columbian and Surrey Memorial are two of the Lower Mainland-area hospitals with workers in need of furnished accommodation.
“The need is for one-bedroom units,” Simpson wrote. “Some property owners are offering accommodations at no cost, and some are requesting a nominal amount to help defray the cost of utilities or condo fees. The maximum suggested rent is $500 per month or less for a studio or one-bedroom unit.”
A press release notes the project started in early April, when a nurse at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria made a plea on social media for a low-cost suite for herself and a colleague.
The release points out that people who work in hospitals and other health-care facilities are now faced with the possibility of putting their families at risk of COVID-19 exposure when they go home after shifts. Many workers are attempting to find secondary housing to tide them over but can’t afford to pay market rates for a second suite.
Seeing the need, a volunteer project organizer in Victoria rose to the challenge. Heather Conquergood engaged colleagues Ryan Stanley in Ottawa and Lisa Allyn in Vancouver. Together, they set up a project website and engaged a team of volunteers with skills in database management, web development, communications and outreach, and they now have a dedicated website up and running to connect property owners with health-care workers – a project that’s running entirely on donated volunteer time.
The website at www.healthworkerhousing.ca is a one-stop landing page for both front-line workers (including janitorial staff, care aides, nurses, social workers, doctors, hospital porters, respiratory therapists and more) and property owners with furnished, empty suites to spare.
Units should have a separate entrance, WiFi and access to laundry facilities.
The initiative has now caught on across the country, with listings in Victoria, Metro Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa and Montreal, and is now spreading into the U.S.
“The Healthcare Workers Housing team and all the property owners who have offered to help are sending a clear message to health-care workers: We’re all in this together,” says the press release.
See www.healthworkerhousing.ca for all the details.
