BURST
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke says her city will do everything it can to build nearly 1,000 affordable-housing units despite a loss of provincial funding .
“It’s very disappointing for us. We need this affordable housing ,” Locke said. “We will continue that dialogue with the ministry because this is not a ‘nice to have,’ this is a ‘need to have.’ But we’re just stalled right now.”
A total of 954 units were planned for Surrey, including housing for youth, Indigenous people, women fleeing violence , and supportive housing for those experiencing homelessness and addiction.
Out of eight projects, six have been deferred by B.C. Housing for an indefinite time. The other two projects — supportive housing in South Surrey and Whalley — were cancelled outright.
Under the original plan, the city would provide the land and the province would provide the money to build these projects. Some of the funding was to have come from the province’s community housing fund, which the government announced in February was being suspended.
B.C. Housing informed the city that it was no longer able to provide the funding previously promised due to the province’s decision to take more than $1 billion away from housing projects as it wrestles with a multibillion-dollar deficit.
“We rarely do as we’re told,” Locke said in late February at a gender-based violence forum at Surrey city hall. “We’re going to figure it out — Surrey always does. We’re a get ‘er done kind of city and so we’re going to get ‘er done.”
One of the projects deferred was a women’s transition housing development that was to be run by Atira Women’s Resource Society, which provides support and housing to women and children fleeing violence.
“Decisions like this are obviously incredibly difficult, but really, they reflect the broader pressures in the system right now,” said Sarah McIntosh, Atira’s CEO.
The development was supposed to finished in about 18 months, McIntosh said, replacing a women’s transition house, Shimai House, which has room for 10 people.
The new facility would be built on a B.C. Housing-owned site in the same area of Whalley and provide space for up to 50 people.
“Last year, we were able to house 250 women and children, but we turned away nearly 3,000 more and we’re just one organization,” McIntosh said.
“There’s no question that everyone’s working hard to get new housing built. But, the truth is, we can’t build our way out of this kind of housing crisis one project at a time or with one funder. We need a co-ordinated, kind of cross-sector approach that leverages all of the partners’ strengths.”
Most of the pre-development work had been completed, with development permits submitted to the city of Surrey, McIntosh said, when B.C. Housing pulled the funding.
“Everybody is trying to understand what happens next, but I also know that at this moment, there’s no clear path forward and there’s just this understanding that this system isn’t working fast enough,” she added.
One option the city is in the early stages of pursuing is bringing some of the stalled housing projects under the Surrey Homelessness and Housing Society, a non-profit agency with $10 million for projects.
The organization is a partner with Surrey. Its board chair, Pardeep Kooner, is also a city councillor.
“The biggest one that I had an issue with was for the 30-youth supportive housing and then there were like 200 that were specifically for women and children,” Kooner said of the cancelled funds.
“I don’t understand personally, how anybody can say no to those as easily as this province has managed to. I understand that they’re in a huge deficit … but I feel like they’ve failed.”
Kooner said there are three approaches the city is contemplating: get federal funding through the homelessness society, work with local developers, and bring the provincial ministry back to the table and at least get partial funding.
Funding from the city could be an option, Kooner said, but she added that city money is tied up in other housing projects, meaning the city may have to borrow from the Municipal Finance Authority of B.C.
“The problem is, Metro Vancouver is already looking to borrow $10 billion from MFA in the next 10 years. … But do we have options? 100 per cent,” she said.
If the city does decide to fund the housing projects, it would not be the first time Surrey has taken on a role that has traditionally been a provincial responsibility. Later this year, Surrey will be opening the first of several city-operated medical clinics.
“This is not a responsibility of the city. We’re happy to do everything we can to make it happen, but this is a provincial responsibility, and they should be taking care of what their responsibilities are,” Kooner said.