James Bay renter Darlene Haynes can relax now that her Michigan Street apartment building will remain affordable, following its purchase by the Greater Victoria Housing Society.
The non-profit society worked with the provincial government’s Rental Protection Fund, which put up about $8 million for the 44-unit 430 Michigan St. complex and about $4.6 million for a 24-unit building at 1500 Chambers St. in Fernwood.
The fund has also provided about $1.2 million in grants as part of its capital contributions for building improvements.
Both buildings have rents that are an average of 37 per cent below market rate and are close to transit services and stores.
The society has committed to retaining the existing rental rates upon unit turnover, with adjustments for inflation.
Haynes, who has lived in the Michigan Street building for 14 years, said it had been up for sale a few times, creating a lot of uncertainty for residents.
“I guess the constant [fear] is: Are we going to be evicted? Are there going to be renovictions?” she said. “That’s way up there in terms of the fears, especially for people that are low-income and have lived for here a very long time.”
Still, she said she would like to know a little more about the specific plans for the building.
As a retiree living on a fixed income, she said that knowing rent will be stable is very important to her.
“I’m just very lucky that I have the pensions I have,” she said.
Housing society executive director Virginia Holden said that the number of homes owned by non-profit groups like hers needs to grow “to keep pace with the increasing demand for long-term, affordable and secure housing options.”
She said that is especially true for people with low or moderate incomes.
Holden said the housing society started with a single building for seniors in 1956 and now has close to 1,000 housing units at 21 properties throughout the region.
Katie Maslechko, chief executive of the Rental Protection Fund, said the two new purchases allow affordable homes to be preserved “at a fraction of the cost of building new.”
The average rent in the two buildings is about $1,300 a month, which makes them affordable to people earning around $50,000 a year, Maslechko said.
“And when the average renter median income in Victoria is $64,000 per year, this is exactly the affordability we need to be supporting and protecting,” she said.
The housing society is one of several groups that has joined with the fund so far, she said, and the model is gaining interest across the country.
Other acquisitions made this year through the fund include a 16-unit apartment building at 860 Carrie St. in Esquimalt, which was bought by the Lu’ma Native Housing Society, and the 50-unit Molliet Manor in Parksville, bought by the Nanaimo-based Ballenas Housing Society.
The $500-million fund, established last year, provides one-time capital grants to non-profit housing organizations for purchasing affording rental building and co-operatives.
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