By Roy L Hales

One of the key issues in this election is British Columbia’s lack of affordable housing. Earlier this year, the NDP government stated that it built, or is building, 25,000 new affordable homes.

Photo credit: Construction site by Scott Lewis via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)

Affordable Housing in Campbell River

Some of these projects are in our region. Cortes Currents has posts about three projects, with120 homes, in Campbell River.

Kristi Schwanicke, Coordinator of the Campbell River & District Coalition to End Homelessness, says these projects will have a tremendous impact on the city’s homeless problem.

In last week’s edition of Folk U, Manda Aufochs Gillespie reported:

“ … I also reached to get more specific stats from the BC Housing Research Centre on this very question and they told me get back in touch after the new cabinet has been formed. However the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing did issue this comment earlier, in preparation for this series.”

Affordable Housing on small islands

“We know that for many years communities across the province, including small island communities, have been facing a shortage of affordable housing. Our Government is making the largest affordable housing investment in BC history, including thousands of mixed income affordable homes already underway around the province, with more to come.”

“Through the Building BC Community Housing Funds first intake, launched in 2018, we are currently working with non-profits to build new affordable rental homes on:

• Cortes Island – 4 homes
• Hornby Island – 26 homes
• and Salt Spring Island – 80 homes.

“The province has also recently issued a second call for proposals under the community housing fund and communities are encouraged for more housing to meet their needs.”

Political Banter

Affordable housing was on the list of questions Cortes Currents sent out to the NDP, Liberal and Green candidates in our riding.

A member of the Liberal team 'respectively declined' to comment, suggesting that we check their press releases instead.

One of these claimed the Government only built 2,430 rental units in the first two years of their mandate.

According to a November 5, 2019 article in the Vancouver SUN, "Two years into the NDP’s mandate, an update from B.C. Housing shows almost half of 13,182 affordable housing units — earmarked for general affordability, rental, homelessness, Indigenous housing and women’s transition support — are still labelled 'in progress' because they don’t have the required funding or commitments to proceed."

Links of Interest

• (Cortes Currents/Folk U) – Finding Home (Cortes Island)
• (Cortes Currents) – Opposition to affordable housing at 580 Street in Campbell River
• (Cortes Currents) – Campbell River’s Bridge to housing for the homeless
• (Cortes Currents) – Seniors Housing Projects on Cortes & Quadra
• (Cortes Currents) – How Quadra Islanbd mobilized to solve a seniors housing crisis
• (Cortes Currents) – the definition of homelessness in our area
• (Cortes Currents) – It takes a community to raise a village (Cortes Island)
• (Cortes Currents) – Campbell River’s homeless camp
• (Cortes Currents) – articles about Cortes Community Housing
• (Cortes Currents) – articles about Quadra Island Seniors Housing Society