The 73 affordable housing units planned for a property on Carey Road in Saanich will provide badly needed housing options for families, seniors and people with disabilities, according to the Capital Region Housing Corporation.
The agency will run the building, being built at 3816 Carey Rd.
“Families have been hit especially hard by the rental crisis,” said David Screech, chairman of the housing corporation and View Royal mayor. Screech was speaking at a groundbreaking ceremony at the construction site.
Now, more than ever, people in the region are in need of affordable housing as they face a low vacancy rate across Greater Victoria — 0.7 per cent in 2017 — and a vacancy rate of zero per cent for units with three or more bedrooms, Screech said.
Dubbed Westview, the four-storey building will include 11 studio apartments, 38 one-bedroom apartments, 20 two-bedroom units and four three-bedroom units. Sixteen of the units will rent for $375 a month while rents for the other units range from $550 to $1,950 a month.
Screech acknowledged that the region needs more three-bedroom rental units for low-income families and said the four in the project are just a start. He said the corporation is working with B.C. Housing and the Capital Regional District to look at building larger units.
Five of the ground-floor units will be fully accessible and offered to tenants selected by the Independent Living Housing Society.
The Capital Region Housing Corp. is providing an office and gathering space for the society’s programs.
The province covered the lion’s share — $7.2 million — of the $8.5-million project. The housing corporation provided the land, valued at $4.5 million and $1 million in cash equity.
Agriculture Minister Lana Popham, MLA for Saanich-South, said the provincial government has heard from working families, seniors and people with disabilities who say they’re forced to live in homes that are unsafe and that they lack long-term security.
“We’re committed to building more of this type of housing which brings real opportunities to people who are struggling under the weight of the housing crisis,” she said.
Saanich Mayor Richard Atwell said he’s encouraged by the funding being provided by the provincial government and hopes to see more affordable housing projects built in the next three years. “We’d like to see more and more of these buildings built over the next two or three years to address homelessness at the shelter level, low-to-moderate incomes and to provide a variety of housing choices,” he said.
The foundation will be poured in the coming weeks and construction is set to be completed by 2020.
The development at 3816 Carey Rd. will be the newest addition to the Mount View Heights development, a collection of buildings that house seniors and people with disabilities on the former site of Mount View High School. Those buildings include Olympic Vista, which is run by the Cool Aid Society, and Carey Place and the Heights, which are run by Baptist Housing Society.
