The residents gathered at a picnic table in front of their new Spirit Creek apartments on Buckley Avenue on a recent warm summer night are all very grateful for the affordable housing units they have recently moved into.
Still, they feel unnecessarily squeezed by the cost of doing laundry at the social housing facility.
They say it was initially $1.50 to do a wash load and the same to dry one load when residents started moving into their units this spring. In May, the price went up to $3 each for both the shared washers and dryers.
Sea To Sky Community Services Society operates the affordable rental housing complex with its 76 units.
While five tenants met with The Squamish Chief about this, another seven were also upset about it and willing to go on the record to say it was an issue.
One tenant who lives alone said it costs $80 per month to do laundry, and a single mother with one child with special needs has spent $250 over six weeks.
Some of the residents are people living with disabilities, which means they have to wash their clothes, sheets and towels more often, they said.
‘I can hardly even get food’
The tenants note this is a hardship for many who live there and are on fixed incomes, especially when everyone is already feeling the pinch of inflation, which is jacking up the cost of groceries and other goods and services.
Due to the cost of doing laundry, some residents said they are hauling their dirty clothes to friends’ or relatives’ homes.
The tenants say that others are flipping their underwear inside out to make it last, washing their clothes in the sink or tub, or having to choose between clean clothes and other necessities like food.
“I’m 25 years old, and I only make so much money,” said resident Tracy Devost. “I can hardly even get food for myself ... It’s hard to even do laundry nowadays.”
Different from other laundromats, the machines are not industrial-sized, so fewer items can fit into a single load, the residents said.
Resident Kelly Kerr said she worries about folks trying to get a leg up and secure a job, but not having clean clothes to wear.
Not having clean laundry is dehumanizing, some of the tenants said.
“[This is] social housing, so this is a step up for them from where they were. And they’re trying to rebuild their life. With that comes getting employment,” Kerr said, adding people’s confidence will undoubtedly take a hit if they aren’t dressed well.
“If your clothes feel icky and smell, I mean, you’re not going to get hired either,” she said.
“[Clean laundry] is important for someone to want to move up and be more part of society and in the community … The idea of social housing is supposed to be to help people.”
Non-profit?
Resident and single parent to an adult child with special needs, Tanaya Forsyth, said that the range of incomes varies in the facility so it “makes no sense” that someone on a fixed income — about $16,000 a year for someone on disability assistance, for example — pays the same as a family that makes $117,000 a year, which is the cap at which folks can live there.
Forsyth said she is irked that it is supposed to be a non-profit complex, but the cost of the laundry seems geared toward making money.
“My clothes should not be why you’re making money,” she said.
'Standardizing laundry rates'
For its part, a spokesperson for Sea to Sky Community Services confirmed the current prices at Spirit Creek, but says that is standardized.
“We are standardizing our laundry rates across all our properties, and the $3 rate is in keeping with the cost of laundry services at the other residential buildings we manage in Squamish and the local laundromat downtown,” said Kim Konnert, spokesperson for the society, in an email to The Squamish Chief.
Tenants at Riverstones pay $2.50 per wash and $3 per dry, and tenants at Centrepoint recently received a rate increase notice to $3 per wash and $3 per dry, Konnert said.
The laundry services model at Castle Rock Family Housing differs from our other buildings in that most tenants take advantage of the in-suite laundry hookups, and the society owns the machines used in the common area, Konnert said.
The private laundromat downtown charges $5 or $10 for a wash and $5 for a dry, she noted.
SSCS sets the fee for laundry services as part of the operating budget for each apartment building, according to Konnert.
“As a non-profit society and registered charity, Sea to Sky Community Services does not profit from laundry services. However, laundry services are a revenue-generating stream we build into each building’s operating budget. After accounting for the cost of leasing and servicing the machines, we allocate leftover dollars to building maintenance, repairs, landscaping, or other building needs. The revenue generated from laundry services at any residential building we operate stays within the individual property," she said.
Konnert added that the society reviews its housing budgets yearly and thus will review Spirit Creek’s laundry budget next spring, after it has been open a year.
"Adjustments could be made to the laundry rates at that time if the budget allows. SSCS is committed to providing affordable, accessible housing for all our tenants, balancing the need for affordable amenities with maintaining the building in a safe, operating condition," she said.
Konnert also stressed that the residents who speak out about this issue, a few of whom expressed concern about possibly losing their housing if they spoke out publicly for this story, need not worry.
“I want to assure the residents of Spirit Creek that no punitive action will ever be taken for bringing a concern forward,” she said. “SSCS is committed to providing safe, secure, and stable housing; we follow the BC Residential Tenancy Act, and we encourage all residents to use our complaint submission form as needed. We routinely review our policies, procedures, and budgets. Resident feedback is integral to that review.”
The Squamish Chief contacted Coinamatic, the company that supplies the machines at Spirit Creek, for a comment for this story, but the company did not respond to our requests.
