The City of New Westminster is hoping to get the creative juices flowing in the housing sector and create affordable housing developments on two city-owned sites in the downtown and Queensborough.
The city is requesting proposals for innovative affordable ownership or rental housing projects for two city-owned sites at 630 Ewen Ave and 43 Hastings St. A request for proposals will soon be issued and proponents will need to submit ideas by the end of September 2015.
“Cities are not necessarily able to solve affordable housing, but what we are hoping is we can get some housing providers to come up with some unique and creative solutions on ways to provide affordable projects,” Mayor Jonathan Cote told the Record. “I am confident we will get two really good affordable housing projects in the city, but to me the real success is if we can potentially start to find a housing model that can be replicated in other places in the city or even other cities.”
Cote said the city didn’t put too many restrictions on the type of projects that would be considered, as it wanted to get as many people coming forward with innovative ideas as possible. He said organizations like Habitat for Humanity have already expressed an interest in the concept.
‘We are optimistic we are going to get a number of different proposals, and then we can see which ones provide the best long-term affordability and a model that might actually start to pique some interest in other places as well,” he said.
Cote said the initiative demonstrates New Westminster’s commitment to be both a leader and active partner in addressing housing affordability, which is one of the most important issues facing the region at this time.
“Affordable housing is going to be one of the key priorities of city council during this term,” he said. “It’s one of the most challenging issues Metro Vancouver is facing. I think we are going to be trying a variety of different policies and see what the municipality can do to assist with this issue.”
The City of New Westminster would make the sites available at no charge to the successful proponent, but the proponent would pay the development cost charges. The city would also cover related expenses such as site servicing costs (sewer, storm drainage, water), development approvals and building permit fees, costs associated with the public consultation requirements (public meetings, mailing costs and communication materials), legal fees, with funding coming from the city’s affordable housing reserve fund.
The city is working closely with B.C. Housing and the Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation, which could provide additional support in terms of project financing or operating assistance.
“Depending on the quality of the proposals received, we aim to have up to two affordable housing projects under construction by the summer of 2017,” Cote said. “Our affordable housing task force is also exploring other opportunities to facilitate new affordable housing in our community to better meet the needs of persons with disabilities, seniors and young families.”
Soon after being elected mayor, Cote establish a mayor’s housing affordability task force to consider the creation of new nonmarket housing for low- and moderate-income households, affordable rental housing and affordable home ownership in New West.
The task force recommended that the projects considered through the request for proposal demonstrate short- and long-term affordability, have a design that’s sympathetic to the existing neighbourhoods, be sustainable for families with children, be able to be replicated elsewhere in the city and be under construction by the summer of 2017.
“Our objective is to create new affordable housing and demonstrate the development of compact forms of housing, including family-friendly, here in New Westminster,” said Bev Grieve, the city’s director of development services. “Lessons learned will inform our official community plan review currently underway and act as an incubator for housing affordability and innovation that can be applied across our region.”
