There was great news for two affordable housing projects in the region last week. The Columbia Basin Trust announced it will be pitching in with some funding for developments in Trail and Nelson.
Jan Morton, President of the Board for the Lower Columbia Affordable Housing Society, was extremely happy to hear that the Trust is contributing $115,200 towards the nine unit development in East Trail.
“We’re delighted. They’ve been real partners. Partners in this project and partners in lots of other ways in terms of working with us as a community to look at the variety of affordable housing needs that we have,” said Morton.
She explained with the financing of a new building there’s capital grants and mortgage and this will help bring the mortgage cost down, making the building more affordable to operate.
The development which is slated for Columbia Avenue, hasn’t received final approval from BC Housing yet, but Morton added they’re very close to submitting the last application.
“BC Housing really is looking ahead to the future and is saying they want buildings that are developed with their funding to have those high levels, code leveled, for standards of energy efficiency and those have proven a little bit challenging to get the design just right,” explained Morton.
She expects to submit the application in the next week or so and if all goes well construction could start in May.
The Nelson Cares Society also received $542,400 from the Trust for their development on Hall Street, which will create 43 units of rental housing for families and seniors. The rate structure for the rentals will include 20% at the provincial shelter rate ($375), 50% at rent that is geared to income and 30% will be near market rate. The ground breaking ceremony was held last week with MLA Michelle Mungall in attendance.
In total, the Trust is providing nearly $1.5 million to help build 118 new affordable housing units in Cranbrook, Fernie, Nelson, Trail and Valemount.