Update: Project Funding

At their December 14, 2020 meeting, Council directed staff to explore options for enhancing the Affordable Housing Reserve Fund, with the intent of providing Council with more opportunities to support more affordable housing projects per year. Staff was to report back with a recommendation regarding the City financially supporting the project proposed by Aboriginal Land Trust Society (ALT) at 823-841 Sixth Street once this work was complete.

As noted in a previous project update, the applicant has stated that this project is reliant on funding from each level of government, including the City. The applicant has also stated that a financial contribution from the City would greatly improve the application’s likelihood of success in received funding from BC Housing.

The work to explore options for enhancing the Fund is now underway. However, it cannot be completed within the timeline required for BC Housing’s consideration of funding the proposed project.

As is typical, BC Housing does not expect to fund offsite costs “over and above” the typical offsite servicing and infrastructure. As this project does include higher than typical costs staff identified $631,000 that could be allocated to the project. This includes:

• the Electrical Utility funding the added off-site utility requirements associated with providing three phase overhead power to the site property line (maximum $100,000);
• funding the implementation of the Uptown Streetscape Vision (maximum $115,000), including: the Sixth Street cyclist route ($25,000) and the multi-use path ($90,000); and
• funding being allocated from the Affordable Housing Reserve Fund (maximum $416,000) to towards the offsite servicing and infrastructure costs for the project. A total made available due to another project with allocated funding no longer advancing in 2021.

At their meeting on May 3, 2021, Council supported a grant of $631,000 to be provided by the City toward the offsite servicing and infrastructure costs. The allocation of these funds are subject to: staff review and acceptance of the project proforma; approval of project funding from BC Housing; and approval by Council of the proposed Official Community Plan (OCP) and zoning bylaw amendment applications. All other project costs would be the responsibility of the applicant.