City of North Vancouver council is crossing its t’s and dotting its i’s for 179 below-market and affordable rental homes and withdrawing the cash needed to rebuild North Shore Neighbourhood house.
Council voted unanimously July 22 to sign a housing agreement with Catalyst Community Housing, the non-profit that will lead construction of the new 30,000-square-foot Neighbourhood House, along with the below-market rentals in a 15-storey mass timber tower on top.
Under the rules, Catalyst must keep all of the units as rentals for the entire tenure of their 60-year lease, all of which must be at least 10 per cent below market rents. At least 30 per cent of the units will be designated as affordable, which Catalyst has proposed be as $1,118 per month for a studio, $1,318 for a one-bedroom, $1,729 for a two-bedroom and $2,150 for a three bedroom.
Current City of North Vancouver residents or people who work in the city will have the first opportunity to rent in the building.
Catalyst will be responsible for means and eligibility testing for tenants annually.
And the city has directed that any operating surpluses Catalyst brings in be put toward reserves to keep the building running smoothly and in good physical condition. Anything leftover beyond that should go to further reducing rents, the agreement states.
Council’s discussion at their July 22 meeting was kept largely to procedural questions, but Mayor Linda Buchanan did comment on the estimated rents and number of two- and three-bedroom homes available within the building.
“If they can hold it at that, it will be great,” she said. “It’s going to be a nice mix of tenures in that building.”
During the same meeting, council agreed to appropriate $35 million from its budget for the project to fund construction of the North Shore Neighbourhood House portion, which has an estimated total cost of $49.5 million.
In January, council voted to seek Municipal Finance Authority loans to fast track the replacement of the 1967 North Shore Neighbourhood House building, which is reaching the end of its life and has seen its community services, seniors and child care programs outgrow the space available.
At the time, the mayor said it would make the project more eligible for outside funding from senior levels of government. The next month, Premier David Eby announced the housing project attached to the Neighbourhood House rebuild would be among the first included in the BC Builds program, which provides low-cost financing, expedited approvals and grants for affordable housing projects built on public lands.
Catalyst is already building an 89-unit below-market rental building and an 18,000-square-foot seniors’ respite centre on the same property.
Previously, Phase 2 of the project hadn’t been scheduled to start until 2028. The city staff report says construction may now begin as early as September and according to the city, it should be completed by 2028.
