Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Affordable Housing Helps 20 Nanaimo Residents

$4,600,000.00

AFFORDABLE HOUSING OPENS

NANAIMO – Low-income adults now have greater access to affordable housing with the opening of 20 new rental units in Nanaimo, announced Ron Cantelon, MLA for Parksville-Qualicum.

“Having access to stable, affordable housing is a necessity when it comes to building healthy and prosperous lives,” said Cantelon. “The Province is creating housing solutions to give low-income British Columbians a chance to do this, which is why we provided funding to help open these new affordable housing units in Nanaimo.”

The Province provided a $1.7-million grant from the Housing Trust fund and $2.4 million as a mortgage through the Provincial Homelessness Initiative, a program that integrates support services with housing to help people move beyond temporary shelter to more secure housing, greater self-reliance and appropriate employment. The City of Nanaimo provided a 60-year lease for the land valued at $294,000, as well as waiving on- and off-site servicing costs.

“Providing safe affordable housing to people on small incomes is critical to the healthy social development of our community” said Nanaimo Mayor John Ruttan. “The City of Nanaimo is committed to working with our provincial partners and local builders to support these kinds of projects throughout the community.”

Through the involvement of the Canadian Homebuilders Association (CHBA), contractors and suppliers who worked on the project have pledged over $100,000 in donations, which will reduce the overall cost of the project.

The Canadian Homebuilders Association – Central Vancouver Island are pleased that we could work with Nanaimo Affordable Housing, BC Housing and the City to help to bring this new affordable housing to our community," said Chris Erb, spokesman for CHBA Central Vancouver Island.

The Nanaimo Affordable Housing Society (NAHS), an advocacy group for affordable housing in Nanaimo, will operate the development.

Nanaimo has always had a high proportion of single adults living on a fixed or low income but there have not been very many options for affordable housing available to them,” said Jim Spinelli, executive director, NAHS. “Nanaimo Affordable Housing was pleased to take on the responsibility for this project and we are committed to ensure that the project will always be a place that the tenants can proudly call their home.”

The development meets the Province’s sustainability commitment of reducing the impact on the environment, by constructing the development to meet the Canadian Homebuilders’ “Built Green – Gold” standard. Through the program, homebuilders, suppliers and manufacturers are trained to develop homes that can be officially certified as Built Green. As well, the program educates the public on the value of a home that meets Built Green standards.

The Province has committed to creating more than 4,000 new housing units under the Provincial Homelessness Initiative. In 2009-10, the Province’s budget for shelters and affordable housing is over $469 million – more than four times what it was in 2001.

Editor's Comment: Hooray for Nanaimo and the Province for providing affordable housing for low income people. It is about time! Now, perhaps someone in the fifth estate (local NEWSpaper) could do some investigative reporting to explain why a one bedroom apartment, on leased land with all service charges waived by the city and with donations from local builders cost $230,000 per unit to build? You can buy decent two bedroom, two bath condos in Nanaimo for less than $200,000 each. So once again, is the taxpayer really getting a good bang for the buck when government gets into projects they are not qualified to manage? Why not simply buy some of the exisitng condos and subsidize the rent for these people?

Does 'affordable" housing refer to the cost to the end user to rent, or the cost to the taxpayer to build?


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