Interim housing needs assessment to be conducted

Those within Merritt’s flood inundation zone will soon be asked to fill out a quick five question survey to help the City of Merritt decide on bringing a interim housing camp to town to assist those who have lost their homes.

“The idea is, we have have an opportunity to deploy a camp style housing here in Merritt for a rapid housing need,” said CAO Sean Smith. “Please fill out the survey, so we can properly ballpark an accurate count.”

“A lot of theses units are not well configures for pets or families. And they don’t have great kitchen facilities. We need to know about these needs so we can properly prepare,” said Smith.

Along with staff going door-to-door, the survey will be posted online.

Smith added that as the City looks at this immediate need, they’re also looking further down the road towards more permanent housing needs.

“We are looking at what we can do to build out our supply of permanent housing in the four to six month term,” added Smith.

Even the four to sixth month housing will not be perfect, and likely not stick-built homes, as speed will be important. Further permanent housing options one to two years down the road are also being investigated.