Lack of housing becoming an HR issue in the North Okanagan

For a while now, the private sector has been speaking out about the challenges employers are facing when workers can’t find housing.

Now government agencies are also talking publicly about how the housing issue could be impacting their hiring.

The Vernon School District is finding some prospective workers aren’t able to move here because of housing.

For the school district its means they haven’t always been able to hire their top choice.

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“It is frustrating when you get that best possible person, who wants to be here, and because of housing they can’t be here so you’ve got to go to somebody else,” said Reid.

Interior Health data shows over 15 per cent of health-care jobs in the North Okanagan are currently unfilled.

“Like many industries, the healthcare sector is facing a shortage of workers. We know that it can be a challenge for people to find housing, and this can be a barrier to attracting new professionals to the region.” said Richard Harding, the health authority’s executive director of clinical operations, in a statement.

The health authority did not make anyone available for an interview Wednesday on this topic.

Governments often work hard to highlight mostly positives, but the impact of the housing crunch on employers is something the Regional District of North Okanagan (RDNO)wants the public to think more about.

The regional government actually helped to put out a press release on the issue this week.

RDNO board chair Kevin Acton said the regional government wants to talk about the issues the lack of housing is creating and educate the public “on what we are looking to do to try and solve it so everybody is ready for it when it comes.

The central change the regional government wants residents to be ready for, as officials try to address the housing issue, is more density.

“When somebody gets a suite in a neighbourhood that it wasn’t maybe allowed before or if a laneway house is built in a neighbourhood where it wasn’t allowed before, I think it would be really important for…people to understand that that’s a possibility now,” Acton said.

The regional district is hoping that highlighting the impact on employers proves to the public that change is needed.

2:02 Retaining doctors in the North Okanagan by providing housing