CANMORE – Canmore Community Housing Corporation has a new strategic plan that will take it into the future – including the creation of two new pilot programs to help address housing affordability.
At the annual general meeting of its shareholders on Tuesday (Oct. 22), managing director Dougal Forteath and board chair Steve Ashton detailed the refreshed future direction for the organization.
Ashton said a sub-committee was established to create the 2019-21 strategic plan and through that process it identified down payment assistance and accessory suite subsidy programs as something it should explore.
"The exercise was to come up with a strategic plan and then dive into new programs, but the sub-committee felt we should dive into these new [pilot] programs in this process, and develop them to the point as to include them in the strategic plan," he said.
"We are excited about these new programs, which are really created to tie into the new opportunities we are seeing and create further inventory."
At the end of September, the board and Canmore town council marked the completion of CCHC's most recent perpetually affordable housing project (PAH) – Hawks Bend – 49 units of home ownership housing that has sold out.
That project's success, said Ashton, has resulted in a surplus for CCHC and it is those funds the board is proposing to use to fund the two new pilot programs.
The three-year pilot programs would begin next year and sees CCHC commit an estimated $750,000 toward them. The accessory suite program would provide a grant up to $20,000, or 75 per cent of the total capital costs, for an accessory suite to be built or renovated. The matching down payment program is proposed to provide up to $20,000 to residents looking to buy a market housing and is aimed at helping current PAH homeowners, or those on the waiting list.
"The board is excited by this program," Forteath said. "They think it has the opportunity to help PAH owners get into market housing.
"Both of [these programs] will help with the supply of housing on the market."
CCHC's objective is to promote, maintain, assist and establish the provision of housing solutions for the town of Canmore. Forteath said in addition to the two new pilot programs, the board has also identified its next housing development project in the Peaks of Grassi neighbourhood.
"The Town is in the process of acquiring the lands it had negotiated in a purchase and sale agreement with the developer and once that land is acquired it will be transferred to CCHC," he said.
"The board has indicated it would like to move forward with a home ownership project and we will begin that work once we acquire the lands."
At its last board meeting, Mayor John Borrowman put forward the successful motion to begin the process by engaging a surveyor. It is expected the business case and budget will be in front of council during its December budget deliberations and the project will be completed in 18-20 months.
In addition, Forteath said the strategic plan sets out goals of having a strong governance structure and a refreshed communications program.
At the core of that focus on communications is the definition of the term affordable housing, which both Ashton and Forteath said is a cause of consternation for many in the community. Many residents look at the prices for the PAH ownership and rental programs and question whether they are really affordable. But Ashton said the programs are meant to bridge the gap between social housing and market housing in the community.
"As part of the sub-committee's work, we identified our communications program as critical," Ashton said. "We are looking to really develop that over the course of the next year, so we can better help define the program."
Councillor Vi Sandford agreed with the initiative, saying affordable means different things to different people.
"Affordable housing is too catch all and too generic," she said. "It does not define anything and you want to define something that reflects the housing you create."
Forteath said CCHC has also been working with Mountain Haven Cooperative Housing to convert that development from a co-op structure to a condo corporation, which he expects to be complete in early 2020.
In 2018, council approved making an offer to Mountain Haven to purchase 17 units of rental housing from the financially challenged cooperative, which was on the brink of foreclosure at the time.
Forteath said there are existing tenancies in those units that must be respected and that as tenants have come up to renew their leases, CCHC has ensured they meet its eligibility criteria. But when it comes to what to do with those units in the long term, he said there are still conversations to be had with respect to whether or not they will be sold as PAH home ownership units or remain in the rental program.
CCHC's efforts moving into the future also includes a master planning process for the Palliser area, which includes collaborating with the municipality and Stone Creek Resorts, which owns lands for employee housing along Palliser Trail.
"We are really following the Town's lead and working toward that," Forteath said.
