We are super excited about getting started on the process of creating a Rent Bank in Kamloops! Read this great article by Michelle Young:
Kamloops Daily News, February 23, 2012
Keeping people in their homes even when they’re short on rent or the utilities are about to be cut off is the goal behind a rent bank.
And it’s an idea that the Kamloops Homelessness Action Plan co-ordinator Tangie Genshorek wants to bring to life here.
“We’re just looking into the concept right now. We had our first information session, we had someone from the Surrey rent bank here to explain it,” she said Thursday.
“We’re looking at how it might fit in here.”
The bank would give limited loans of up to, say, $1,000 or $1,600, to people who met the criteria. They would have two years to pay it all back and, if they did so, they would get the interest they paid returned to them.
Genshorek said the loans are aimed at helping low-income people facing eviction stay in their homes.
“I think it’s huge. It’s the difference between remaining in your housing and becoming homeless.”
B.C. has three rent banks so far, while there are more than 100 in Ontario, she said.
The loans aren’t given out readily, however. Borrowers are subject to background checks, employment, income, etc.
“There’s a whole intake process to verify all the information that they give is accurate,” she said.
Other rent bank operators have told her for every eight applicants, one gets a loan.
Genshorek said those other seven people can be helped to find other resources in the community, so it’s about more than just giving loans.
The next step is to establish the need for a rent bank in Kamloops. Genshorek said there’s a working group looking at that. Then proposals will be put out to funders.
In Surrey, it took 18 months to get a rent bank set up. The Kamloops group has only been working on it for a couple of months. Genshorek said it’ll be at least a year before it’s up and running.
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