Move on in: With unusually high vacancies, rooms are available at local lodges

Local lodges are facing a problem they wouldn’t have expected — an almost unprecedented amount of vacancies.

Over the years, particularly in Bonnyville, the waitlists were long to get into the Bonnylodge or the Cold Lake Lodge. But the turnover of clients slowed during the pandemic, leaving Lakeland Lodge and Housing in a predicament they didn’t expect.

“We got the Bonnylodge and the Cold Lake Lodge; the new lodges are all done, and we got all these new rooms. Now all of a sudden, bang, we’re in an issue where we’re having a hard time getting people to move in,” said board chair Chris Vining. 

“We’ve got room now to accommodate any seniors that would want to move in.”

Vining estimates that there are 12 units available in Cold Lake, roughly two dozen units available in Bonnyville, some spaced for couples as well. This is a far cry from when there were 73 total units in Bonnyville and a waiting list of 65 people deep. 

Both of these facilities had long construction upgrades over the 2010s and are new within the past three years.

He said the empty rooms create a revenue crunch for the lodge board, and in months have raised their rent and adjusted the requisition on their property taxes to account for some lost funds.

The answer isn’t by reducing staffing either because a full staff is still required even if the building is 25 percent vacant, said Vining.

“As soon as we finished that renovation and expansion in Bonnylodge, we’ve pretty much finished it, and COVID hit. It’s really unfortunate because we had enough space in Bonnyville to take and wipe out that waiting list that we had,” he said. 

“If the pandemic hadn’t come, I would think that we would probably be sitting full at the Bonnylodge and maybe have a little waiting list.” 

A key contributor to the long waitlist was the scoring matrix on the lodge application.

Residents who wanted to move in but were above roughly $28,000 in annual income would be a lower priority than those who earned less, which meant many — despite having the need — couldn’t get in.

Now, that issue has passed with these vacancies, and Lakeland Lodge & Housing would like to see them filled.

“They’re great facilities, and there’s a really good, high level of care for folks. If there are people out there that are looking at or entertaining the idea, we’ve got space for us.”