A new housing development planned for Elkford, will see affordable rentals built for middle class couples and families.
A government housing program known as B.C Builds has added 421 Boivin Rd. in Elkford to its province-wide property list, to be developed into a mixture of one bedroom and multi-bedroom apartments.
It is one of eight new housing sites across the province that have been identified as being suitable for new housing developments, with other builds planned in Kamloops, Kelowna, Sooke, North Cowichan and Langley.
“Our communities and our economy depend on middle-income people like teachers, nurses and construction workers and they depend on being able to find a decent place to live within their budget,” Premier David Eby remarked in an e-mail.
“By bringing together public landowners and housing developers and operators through B.C Builds, we are transforming underused public land throughout the province into thousands of lower-cost, middle-income rental homes.”
The 1.18 acre plot of land on Boivin. Rd. is owned by the District of Elkford and is currently vacant. The building would be primarily residential, with a portion of the ground floor devoted to commercial use or childcare.
The target demographic for occupancy includes couples earning $84,780 to $131,950 annually for studio or single bedroom apartments, and families with children earning $134,410 to $191,910 for multi-bed apartments.
B.C Builds remains focused on drafting partnership agreements and lease terms between landowners and developers, and matching zoned land with developers and housing operators. Construction will begin once this phase is finished, with a fast-tracked completion timeline of 12 to 18 months.
A notice of opportunity on the B.C Builds website indicates that stakeholders would like a non-profit society, a co-op, or First Nations development corporation to own and operate the building through a long-term lease of 60 to 99 years.
B.C Builds states that at least a quarter of non-profit and First Nations partnership projects will have rental units 20 per cent below market rate.
According to the Ministry of Housing, the broad province-wide scope of the project and ambitious timeline will be made possible through low-interest financing and grant funding, and by leveraging government, community, non-profit-owned, and underused land.
B.C Builds launched in February with the explicit purpose of delivering housing to middle-class people. The program is supported by $2 billion in financing from the provincial government and $2 billion from the federal government, and 8,000 to 10,000 homes are slated to be built for middle income people over the first five years of the program.