{"id":59648,"date":"2021-09-09T14:14:16","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T18:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=59648"},"modified":"2021-09-09T14:14:16","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T18:14:16","slug":"bc-offers-rental-subsidies-for-lower-income-households-and-seniors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/bc-offers-rental-subsidies-for-lower-income-households-and-seniors\/","title":{"rendered":"BC offers rental subsidies for lower-income households and seniors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The province of British Columbia currently provides two types of rental subsidies for eligible lower-income families and seniors through BC Housing, paid in monthly instalments toward home rent in the private market. On Cortes and Quadra Islands, seniors make up nearly a third of the population.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">BC Housing provides an online <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bchousing.org\/housing-assistance\/rental-assistance\/rap-safer-calculator\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rental Assistance Program Calculator<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to help interested parties determine whether they qualify.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bchousing.org\/housing-assistance\/rental-assistance-programs\/RAP\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rental Assistance Program (RAP)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> provides <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">monthly benefits to families who have a total before-tax household income of $40,000 or less, and also meet all of the following requirements:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At least a portion of the income came from working in the last year<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is at least one dependent child primarily supported by the household<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">More than 30 per cent of the total income goes towards household rent<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The applicants have been residents of BC for the full prior 12 months<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The applicants file an annual income tax return<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The applicants have less than $100,000 in assets.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The applicants are permanent residents of Canada<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Seniors may be eligible for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bchousing.org\/housing-assistance\/rental-assistance-programs\/SAFER\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Shelter Aid For Elderly Renters (SAFER)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. All of the following criteria must be met:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The applicant is 60 years of age or older<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The applicant has been a resident of BC for the full prior 12 months<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The applicant and their live-in spouse, if applicable, are Canadian citizens, permanent residents, have applied for refugee status or had private sponsorship that has broken down<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">More than 30 per cent of the applicant\u2019s gross, before tax, monthly household income is spent on home rent<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Supporting documentation must accompany applications, which<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0can be submitted online, by mail or in person, and BC Housing will contact applicants to confirm they are approved, ineligible or need to provide more information.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bchousing.org\/research-centre\/facts-stats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BC Housing<\/a>, as of March 31, 2020, more than 9,170 low-income working families in BC received the RAP subsidy and <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">approximately 27,060 seniors\u2019 households in BC received SAFER benefits. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Both programs require successful applicants to reapply every year. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Strathcona Community Health Network conducted a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/59b1994b49fc2b50d068eb7e\/t\/5bb6712b4192024dae1a4d3e\/1538683182830\/Area+B.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Regional Housing Needs Report<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in the first half of 2018, which highlighted major gaps in rental affordability in the district. Their findings showed that more than a third of<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Cortes households rent their homes, and couples with children make up the majority of the 17 per cent of households who<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> live below low-income cut-off. Nearly a third of the population of both Cortes and Quadra Islands are seniors 65 years and older, and the survey concluded that senior households are more likely to live in dwellings needing major repairs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Cortes Community Housing's <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cortescommunityhousing.org\/why\/\">website<\/a> points to the popularity of the island as a tourist destination as one reason for lack of year-round housing, creating seasonal homelessness during peak season.<\/p>\n<p>\"<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rentals that might ordinarily have been designated for year round residents are now commanding much higher rents as short term vacation rentals, thus depleting our rental stock for islanders,\" it states.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The province of British Columbia currently provides two types of rental subsidies for eligible lower-income families and seniors through BC Housing, paid in monthly instalments toward home rent in the private market. On Cortes and Quadra Islands, seniors make up nearly a third of the population.\u00a0 BC Housing provides an online Rental Assistance Program Calculator&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":59653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57],"tags":[9271,571,9270],"radio":[252],"origine":[280,266,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59648"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59648"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=59648"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=59648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}