The interest-free loan - with no term for repayment - that Waitaki ratepayers made to speed up a possible 40 extra care beds at Oamaru's Observatory Village ''sticks in the craw'' for someone who paid 15% interest after buying his first home in North Canterbury, Mr Sim said.
He was disappointed ratepayer money was being ''given away'' as it could be used as seed money ''again and again'' in other projects.
''Why should that loan be forgiven?'' he asked Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher yesterday. ''It's ratepayers' money.''
In February, in lieu of a proposed $250,000 donation to the trust, the council approved a donation of $93,000, from the PT Mulligan Pensioner Housing Bequest and the loan of up to $157,000 from the council's community housing reserve to allow the soon-to-be completed rest-home to speed up the trust's planning for a second stage.
After its 41-care-bed facility opened in August another 40 were planned for the site.
Mr Kircher said whether the loan was to be forgiven ''remains to be seen'', but he said the $8 million loan the council gave to the trust in 2015 was interest-bearing.
Mr Sim said the council had placed ''a lot of emphasis'' on tourists, at times at the expense of residents.
He asked that ''services that older people are going to need in the community'' be given priority and said the former North Otago Returned and Services Association building - now that a planned $4 million redevelopment and 10-year lease negotiations had halted - could be redeveloped into ''eight or nine'' units of community housing.
Council property manager Renee Julius confirmed the $157,000 loan to the trust amounted to about 20% of the council's community housing reserve of $772,000.
The council had 91 units of community housing and the sale of its Clare St units in 2010 for $635,000 had funded the Observatory Village loan.
