BC Housing criticized over glass office walls
Cost of custom interior walls for renovated local office is 4 times estimated cost of ordinary drywall
PENTICTON — As people struggled last year to find shelter amid Penticton’s housing crisis, the B.C. government agency handling the file spent more than $1 million renovating an office for its own staff of 20, who now sit surrounded by custom-designed glass walls.
BC Housing’s new office at Chestnut Place, in what was an unused recreation space in the assisted-living facility it owns on Winnipeg Street, was completed by local firm Greyback Construction. Before the move, employees worked out of a rented space on Nanaimo Avenue.
The approved budget was $587,000, according to documents obtained by the Herald through freedom of information requests, but did not include another $496,000 for a new roof and HVAC system.
Of the $587,000 budgeted for the job, $427,000 was spent on interior walls made of glass that are decorated with designs in BC Housing’s signature shades of grey, blue and green.
George Evans, a Vancouver-based construction estimator contacted by The Penticton Herald, estimated the same walls could have been done with studs and drywall for about $106,000.
“I think this is more than a little excessive, especially at a time when people are struggling to make ends meet,” said Kris Sims, B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
“This is a government office that’s supposed to be helping people find housing. They don’t need caviar taste; they need canned-tuna efficiency.”
BC Housing refused The Herald’s request to take photographs in the back office area, suggesting that doing so would be “disruptive” to staff. The agency also refused an interview request, instead supplying a series of statements in response to questions.
“Prior to the move, BC Housing’s Penticton staff levels exceeded the available usable space in the former office location. So when the lease on the former office expired in February 2017, BC Housing decided to relocate to a larger space to accommodate the staffing needs in the community,” the statement explained.
“Prior to the move, BC Housing was paying an annual lease of $27,600, plus sales taxes, property tax, utilities and maintenance.
These costs have now been eliminated by relocating the office to the new location, which BC Housing already owns.”
As for the glass walls, the statements didn’t address the choice of material specifically, but noted the office is 7,600 square feet and required partitions for a public reception area, 14 offices, six cubicles, kitchen, server room, storage and meeting spaces.
The glass walls also reduced the overall budget by $40,000, as they have electrical wiring built into them.
Other expenses associated with the renovation include $66,000 for new office furniture — offset by the sale of the old furniture for $15,000 — and $2,100 to move everything else approximately 500 metres between locations.
Penticton’s rental vacancy rate stood at 0.9 per cent as of October 2017, the most recent period for which data is available. It represented a tightening in the market from 1.5 per cent two years earlier.
BC Housing is currently building 100 new units of social housing in Penticton, where the homeless population was estimated at 168 as of last fall by the 100 Homes group.
The agency says it spent $17 million last year to subsidize 1,536 housing units in the city. At an average of $11,067 per unit, the renovation costs would have subsidized 98 additional households.