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Bryan Garson moved into Kelowna, B.C.’s, first tiny home community last March, shortly after it opened.
Step Place is a 60-unit transitional housing development that supports people experiencing homelessness.“I don’t feel homeless now because I have a key to my door,” Garson said. “It makes you feel human again.”The 47-year-old man said he was unhoused for about three years due to some tough life circumstances.“I don’t ever want to experience it again,” Garson told Global News.Now after months at Step Place, Garson will soon be moving into permanent housing.He was recently approved for a rent supplement through BC Housing and Interior Health and is now waiting to be connected to suitable housing. “Oh I can’t wait just to have my own private bathroom, my own window, my own sofa, a place to relax and call home,” he stated.According to the John Howard Society, which operates the site, 39 people have moved into permanent housing since Step Place opened on Feb. 29, 2024.
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The operator credited the success on the on-site supports helping people along the way.“It’s not just housing. It’s housing with intentional layers of programming,” said Patricia Bacon, CEO of the John Howard Society of Okanagan and Kootenay.Bacon cited individualized case management, employment and life skill development, mental health support and access to treatment among the programs offered at the site.“It’s a robust program here,” Bacon said.Trailside transitional housing on Highway 97 is also reporting success. It opened in May of 2024 and according to its operator, Turning Points Collaborative Society, 24 people have since secured some type of permanent housing.
Work towards the creation of another tiny home community is also underway on Appaloosa Road in the northern part of Kelowna.The 60-unit development will be operated by a social services organization called Connective.It’s slated to be completed later this year with the same intention of helping previously unhoused people move into long-term housing.“People were languishing in shelters and we just needed to interrupt that,” said Bacon. “It can’t be that if you go into shelter, you are forever stuck in shelter and now we have changed that narrative.”Garson said the transitional housing has given him renewed hope for the future and has prompted him to set his own future goals.“To get back to work, take care of myself and live a nice quiet life in my house and see my son,” he said.
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