BC Housing opens process to catalyze 3,500 new affordable homes

Apartment building under construction. (Shutterstock)

Another round of the provincial government’s Community Housing Fund (CHF) is being launched to catalyze 3,500 new affordable housing units.

The application intake process for funding is open through the middle of November 2023, and it is open to non-profit organizations, housing co-operatives, municipal governments, and First Nations. The successful proponents will be announced in early 2024.

Ravi Kahlon, the BC Minister of Housing, says this contributes to the goal of catalyzing 20,000 CHF-funded homes by 2032, “as our province increases its housing stock faster than ever so people have the homes they need now and into the future. Together, with our many partners, we’re making progress, but we know there’s much more work to be done.”

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The projects will be selected based on criteria that considers the need for affordable housing on an area-to-area basis. As well, funding will be available for projects that need to cover further design and planing work to prepare them for the next CHF funding call.

Projects supported by CHF set aside below-market rents, with 70% of the units for residents paying rent geared to income — equivalent to 30% of household income. This includes 20% of units for residents with very low incomes, such as on income or disability assistance.

The remainder of 30% of the homes see rents at below-market rents for households with moderate incomes.

This is the third CHF application intake after the first intake in 2018 and the second intake in late 2020 and early 2021. More intake rounds are planned over the next four years.

According to the provincial government, about 9,000 of their CHF-supported homes to date are built, under construction, or planned. The entire life of the CHF program is supported by $3.3 billion in provincial funding.

“The City of Vancouver is focused on delivering more affordable housing and will continue to do what it takes to lead the region in new housing approval and secure attainable housing in the city,” said Ken Sim, the Mayor of Vancouver. “We appreciate our partners in the provincial government who understand that we need more housing for the people who call this city home.”

The CHF is just one of a number of the provincial government’s programs to fund affordable housing, including the HousingHUB program of providing low-cost construction financing for building new secured purpose-built rental housing for middle-income working households. Recently, the province created the $500 million Rental Protection Fund to provide one-time grants to non-profit housing organizations towards acquiring existing apartment buildings that are listed for sale — a measure to preserve the affordability of the units upon a changeover in ownership.

The provincial government also has plans to create a public housing program, and it has explored other major public housing models found elsewhere in the world, such as those in Singapore and Vienna. More information on BC Builds, the name of this public housing program, is anticipated before the end of 2023.

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