Capital Regional District directors are hoping to strike while the iron’s hot in securing provincial funding for movable modular housing for homeless people.
In a move that still has to be approved by the CRD board, members of the CRD’s hospitals and housing committee are recommending staff canvass local municipalities and report back no later than December with possible sites for affordable housing and modular housing.
Committee members also agreed that board chairwoman Barb Desjardins and committee chairman David Howe should meet with Housing Minister Selina Robinson to determine what funding will be allocated to the CRD for new modular housing and what the criteria for installation will be.
The province’s budget update this month included $291 million over two years to build 2,000 modular housing units for homeless people and $170 million for operations including around-the-clock staffing and support services.
That translates into $145,500 to build each unit and $85,000 in operating costs per unit. Modular units are pre-built and can be stacked together.
“This is an opportunity for us to get people off the streets across the region and, quite frankly, not have to put a cent into it except land that’s available,” said Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps, who proposed the region be proactive on modular housing.
Helps acknowledged that the land does have value but said the modular housing is temporary and can be moved.
“Even two or three sites coughed up by December would be great to go and hand to the minister and say: ‘We’re ready. We’d like to be the first ones in British Columbia to have these installed,’ ” she said.
Victoria Coun. Marianne Alto said there are agencies in the region that have significant experience in the design and installation of a variety of temporary housing models, “all of which are quite lovely and very adaptable to different types of land bases and all of which are easily moved.”
She said some of them can be installed and ready for occupancy in less than six weeks.
“So striking while the iron is hot here is really critical because we have the ability to actually respond very fast,” Alto said. “We can do something quite spectacular in a very short period of time.”
The City of Vancouver, building on the success of a pilot project at 220 Terminal Ave. that saw 40 modular units built at cost of $3 million, is on record as wanting to build 600 more such units by this winter to shelter the city’s homeless.
Vancouver estimates the cost at $75,000 per unit and proposes the modular units be spread across the city at up to 15 under-used or vacant sites, pending development.
Each building would be made up of 40 units, with each site housing a maximum of two buildings.
Helps encouraged committee members to look up details of the Terminal Avenue project on the internet.
“You’ll see it’s a nice-looking apartment building which houses 30 people who are homeless and provides them with supports,” she said. “It just looks like a regular apartment building, but it was built in four months or less.”
A count conducted in February 2016 found 1,387 homeless people in Greater Victoria. Another count is planned for February 2018.
