Vancouver looks to help religious groups build affordable housing

Vancouver City Hall is looking astatine a program to marque it easier for religion groups to physique affordable housing.

Council was acceptable to see a question Wednesday from Coun. Rebecca Bligh, directing metropolis unit to scope retired to churches and different spiritual groups that ain a important magnitude of tax-free spot successful the city.

Bligh said the extremity is to assistance streamline the process for those groups to redevelop immoderate of their onshore for affordable housing.

“A radical we perceive a batch from lately is faith-based groups who spot themselves arsenic a community, they would similar to beryllium doing immoderate societal good, they person held onshore possibly for a agelong time, possibly they request their ain program guardant successful presumption of being capable to negociate budgets and what person you, congregations are changing,” she said.

“At the extremity of the day, determination is simply a desire, a mandate to supply immoderate societal bully backmost to the community.”

Lindsay Hills, rector clergyman successful complaint of St. Mary’s Anglican Church successful Kerrisdale, applauded the initiative, which she said could assistance religion groups get done the analyzable bureaucracy progressive successful gathering housing.

Her parish built societal and seniors lodging 4 decades ago, but the aging properties present request repairs and upgrades.

“One of the biggest challenges we person faced successful having conversations astir redevelopment is simply a unpaid basal that mightiness not person the expertise needed successful bid to propulsion things forward,” she said.

“One of the saddest things I person seen is that congregations that are hopeless to enactment live volition merchantability to commercialized developers, and past they suffer a portion of themselves.”

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First United Church successful Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside provides 1 illustration of what faith-based developments could look like.

The religion is presently gathering an 11-storey task astatine 320 East Hastings, which volition see 7 floors of Indigenous societal lodging and 4 floors of amenities and societal services for the Downtown Eastside.

“There has ne'er been a question oregon a speech that the benignant of lodging we were going to physique was going to person to bash with thing commercialized — this is astir this assemblage successful peculiar successful the DTES,” First United enforcement manager Amanda Burrows said.

“It does instrumentality a batch of will. It does instrumentality a batch of backing arsenic well, and we had a batch of success, we had a batch of philanthropists travel guardant and spot the societal good.”

Bligh’s question directs metropolis unit to study backmost connected resources and unit enactment that tin beryllium made disposable to spiritual groups considering redevelopment, on with imaginable regulatory changes that could assistance simplify the process for them to physique affordable housing.