The news of the former Olive Devaud Residence being sold to Chinese businessperson Shih-tao Lu’s Starium Development is sure to raise some eyebrows, but the most important thing to remember is it will result in more seniors’ housing, which was Olive Devaud’s original vision.
Devaud and her husband Alphonse donated practically everything they owned to Powell River, a town she fell in love with after moving here in 1926 to work at the hospital.
In particular, after Alphonse’s death in 1954, she gifted a 10-acre section of land in Westview with the intent of it being a hospital, six acres of which became the Olive Devaud Residence in 1966. She also contributed thousands of dollars in cash toward the building as it was being established.
Now, for the first time in 50 years, the property at the corner of Westview Avenue and Kemano Street will not be used for seniors’ housing. However, the more than $1 million generated from the sale will be.
Powell River Sunset Homes Society made the decision to sell the building after putting more than $100,000 into repairs for it in the past year. It was time to let the aging building go, and the society should be commended for doing so.
Late last year when Sunset Homes attempted to create a mere six rooms of housing for those in need at the former care home, they were met with resistance from nearby residents and city staff.
A partnership in association with Housing Hope, a program of Powell River Education Services Society, to temporarily house people at risk for homelessness was stopped in its tracks in January when neighbours raised concerns about how the project would affect their property values, community members pointed out that the society was veering from its seniors’ housing mandate and the city made onerous requirements to bring the building back to code.
The sale allows Sunset Homes to get back to its mandate of helping seniors in a brand new building, instead of dealing with an old structure that is no longer suitable, and having to navigate so much bureaucracy.
Whatever Lu decides to do with the former Olive Devaud Residence, and the most obvious scenario is it will be used for dormitories for international students attending his proposed international schools, it will not house seniors any longer.
Can we move on and focus on Sunset Homes’ next project, which will help seniors?
Of course we can. Because it is what Olive Devaud would have wanted.
Jason Schreurs, publisher/editor
