The line for senior’s housing will shorten slightly as new options are becoming available this summer.

Nearly 30 more affordable independent living units will be ready for seniors as a result of the North Peace Care Centre moving in to the new regional hospital facility.

The Northern Health Authority (NHA) recently passed a resolution that will transfer the care centre property back to North Peace Seniors Housing Society (NPSHS), who managed the facility up until 1997.

Since then, the building has been run as a residential care facility by the health region to care for seniors incapable of independent living.

Once the current residents of the facility are transferred to their home at the care centre in the new hospital early this summer, the building will be returned to the NPSHS to convert in to an independent apartment building for seniors aged 60 and over.

“We’re going to do some renovations to make it in to independent seniors living accommodations,” said Kimberly Wilson, Manager at the NPSHS. “So they’ll make them in to separate apartments, and we’ll probably keep the kitchen and dining room so we can offer meals to tenants [in all three buildings].”

The group hopes to create 24 to 28 independent apartments in the facility, which are connected to their other buildings, the Peace Lutheran Apartments, via a connector hallway.

“It is really needed in the community,” said Wilson. “We’re the only independent seniors living buildings in the community.”

Wilson notes that Heritage Manor has some independent living suites in addition to the assisted living facility, but that the facility is government-run which presents some challenges to getting in.

“Heritage Manor is based on income. So if a senior has too many assets or too much money, they don’t even qualify to get in,” said Wilson. “Whereas, we’re separate from the government so we don’t look at their assets and income.”

For the assisted living facility at Heritage Manor, the wait list is up to three years long.

The NPSHS is not without a wait list either, but Wilson said the waiting times can really vary. Currently, they have 79 names on their list.

“There is no straight answer on how long it takes,” said Wilson. “It all depends on how many openings we get.”

In her time with the group, she said she has seen 20 units come open in a month or only three units come open over half a year. She also noted that the list is just a number as many seniors decline an open unit if they don’t want to move during the winter or they want to stay in their regular home just a bit longer.

However, there are many benefits to residents living in this type of facility.

“They want to come to our apartments so they don’t have to cut their grass or shovel their snow or worry about being able to go somewhere. We have a lot of tenants here who will go down to Arizona for four months because they don’t have to worry about anything because everything is looked after in a secure building,” said Wilson.

Wilson also said that socialization is a big reason that seniors want to live in an independent living facility. The 120 seniors currently living in the two available buildings have a large social club and do everything from bringing in bands to daily coffee to woodworking and quilting to exercise classes.

The retiring baby boomer demographic is thought to be one of the reasons that the need for affordable seniors housing is on the rise in Fort St. John.

“More and more of them are staying in this community because their families are here, or they’re wanting to come back [after moving away],” said Wilson.

In addition to the additional units that the acquisition of this building will create, the society is also in the planning phase of building a new facility to replace the recently removed Elks’ Sunset Home.

“That’s a couple of years away, and I have a separate waiting list for that building with 52 names on it.”

The building will have 42 units and also offer some hospitality services such as meal service and laundry.

The NPSHS hopes to have new units available by Fall.