Dockside Green Housing Affordability Strategy Focuses on Families
December 14, 2006, Victoria, BC –Dockside Green presented its Housing Affordability Strategy to City Council today, meeting the requirements as set out in the Master Development Agreement (MDA) signed in September 2005, by the developers and the City of Victoria.
The Dockside Green Housing Affordability Strategy’s target is that 75 units or approximately 10% of all units (on city lands) will be “affordable” within the community of Dockside Green. Created to also help meet community needs, the strategy focuses on providing larger units for families and assisting people in moving from renting to affordable home ownership.
This ties directly to the MDA objectives to create a residential community that includes a range of income brackets, stages of life and ownership/rental structures. As well, the MDA asked for a working land base that “allows residents to live close to where they work and generate new jobs in the city.”
As agreed to in the MDA, Dockside Green will feature two types of affordable housing on site:
- Non-market (rental) housing: Geared to family households in the $35,000-$47,000 income range (2006 dollars) Dockside Green is targeting 49 units to be built, 70 per cent of which will be two-three bedrooms. A specific building site for these units has been chosen in the heart of the Dockside Green community, and approximately $2.2 million (adjusted over time) has been allocated to subsidize the sale price of non-market units to a non-profit organization, which will be responsible for renting out the units. It is important to note that additional funding will be needed to build these units and Dockside Green is committed to working with outside agencies to assist in identifying potential funding sources.
- Market Affordable (ownership) housing: Dockside Green will allocate approximately $800,000 (or just over $30,000 per unit) to create 26 units of Market Affordable housing for ownership in Phase 1: Synergy and Phase 2: Balance. These units are geared to households in the $35,000-$51,000 income range and will be sold below market value. Each unit will also have a restrictive covenant, which will ensure that in the future these units continue to be sold below market and remain affordable within the community. As well, a number of Market Affordable units will be made available to households making the jump from subsidized rental housing to ownership by working with Vancity and its Springboard (zero-down payment) mortgage program.
The Capital Region Housing Corporation (CRHC) has been chosen as the lead partner for implementing the Dockside Green Housing Affordability Strategy. This partnership with the CRHC will assist Dockside Green in bring additional funding resources for affordable housing to the community. The CRHC will also be responsible for administrating the restrictive covenant with the purchasers of the 26 market affordable units and involved in the design and planning of the 49 non-market (rental) units, which they will eventually own.
“ This is the realization of one of the primary mandates of the Capital Region Housing Corporation, that being to develop more affordable housing within our region,” says Chair Dave Ganong. “ The CRHC is honoured to be a partner with Dockside Green in this leading edge and world class urban redevelopment project.”
History of the creation of a housing affordability strategy at Dockside Green
While the original development concept prepared by the City of Victoria put little emphasis on affordability, Dockside Green’s partners, Vancity and Windmill Developments agreed that tackling housing affordability was a key component in achieving a truly triple bottom line community. They agreed to allocate $3 million plus accumulated interest (as outlined in the MDA) for the development of affordable ownership and rental units at Dockside Green. In addition, the City of Victoria will contribute 20% of building permit fees from the entire site (approximately $500,000 for the entire development) to affordable housing on site.
“Victoria’s current housing affordability crisis goes beyond people with basic housing needs to include those families with low to moderate incomes of $30-$60,000 who are having trouble purchasing a home close to where they work,” says Detlef Beck, Director of Community Enterprises, Vancity. “We paid particular attention to this need while developing the strategy.”
The strategy was led and is supported by the Dockside Housing Advisory Committee made up of a representative from the City of Victoria (Wendy Zink), Dockside Green (Detlef Beck,Vancity) and an outside expert ( Linden Holmen).
The market affordable housing will be available as early as the spring of 2007.
For more information people may go to www.docksidegreen.com
DSG Affordable Housing FactMedia inquiries, please contact:
Christine Gleed, Tartan Group
250.592.3838 or 250.896.3844 (cell)