Finding a place to live on Salt Spring Island can be a major challenge. High housing costs and limited rental availability have made it difficult for essential staff to secure homes close to their workplaces. Recognizing this urgent need, the Lady Minto Hospital Foundation is proud to support Care On Salt Spring, a housing portal designed to help healthcare workers find safe, affordable rental options in our community.

What is Care On Salt Spring?

Care On Salt Spring is a simple, free, and community-driven platform that connects healthcare workers with local landlords and homeowners who have rental spaces available. Whether it’s a private suite, a small cottage, or a shared accommodation, the portal helps bridge the gap between healthcare staff looking for housing and property owners willing to rent to them.

The goal is to ease the transition for healthcare workers arriving on Salt Spring — making it easier for them to settle in and continue providing critical care to the community.

How It Works

• Healthcare workers can browse listings and connect directly with property owners.
  
• Landlords can create a listing describing their available unit and/or browse tenant profiles to contact a potential renter directly. 
  
• Listings are reviewed before publication to ensure a smooth and trustworthy experience for both parties.
  

The platform is open to a wide range of healthcare professionals — not just hospital staff, but also employees of Greenwoods Eldercare Society, Lady Minto Hospital, and other healthcare-related organizations.

Why Care On Salt Spring Matters

Salt Spring Island depends on a strong, stable healthcare workforce. Yet without accessible housing, it becomes much harder to recruit and retain the doctors, nurses, technicians, care aides, and other professionals who provide essential services. Housing support is healthcare support.

Recent Insights

From recent data collected through Care On Salt Spring, we know that the average rental budget for tenants using the portal is around $1,290 per month. While this is a fair budget by many standards, finding rental units at this price point on Salt Spring can still be a challenge — especially as overall housing prices remain high.

This highlights just how important community-based efforts like Care On Salt Spring are, alongside larger projects like the Foundation’s 18-unit affordable housing development set to open later this year. While the new building will be a huge step forward, ongoing support from local property owners remains vital to meeting the full range of housing needs for healthcare workers.

How You Can Help

If you have a rental suite, cottage, or other living space, consider listing it on Care On Salt Spring. Even short-term or part-time rentals can make a big difference. By providing housing to a healthcare worker, you’re helping strengthen healthcare services for the entire island.

Learn more and list your rental at: www.careonsaltspring.ca

Together, we can build a healthier, stronger Salt Spring — one home at a time.