KELOWNA — Word that a downtown Kelowna apartment complex has been sold has nearby business owners nervous.
The building was operated by the Kiwanis Club for years and rented to many seniors and others as subsidized housing.
A newly formed foundation has purchased the tower and has announced plans for what it’s calling “a social enterprise centre.”
While it’s not clear what that means – it is known that Metro Community Church will be a part of it.
“It’s going to be like Leon Street,” says Dennis Hubbard, the owner of a barber shop located near the subsidized housing tower. “We’ve got nothing but seniors all in this area and they’ve got to put up with it?”
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Metro Community Church is well known in Kelowna for its services to the homeless but its drop in center on Water Street recently closed to make way for a resort hotel. There are concerns those services could be moved to Kiwanis Tower.
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The Kelowna Foundation for Hope and Social Innovation which purchased the building says there is no need for business owners to worry.
“This stigma idea of suddenly the issue of those who are homeless on the streets downtown suddenly proliferating a residential area is just not
realistic,” says foundation spokesperson and Metro Church pastor Laurence East. “90 percent of resources the homeless access are downtown.”
The foundation says it will release more details about which organizations and services will be operating in the Kiwanis Towers space in the next few weeks.
