A beleaguered housing cooperative in Canmore has a possible hail Mary saving play with the help of town council and Canmore Community Housing Corporation.
A beleaguered housing cooperative in Canmore has a possible hail Mary saving play with the help of town council and Canmore Community Housing Corporation.
Mountain Haven Housing Cooperative, located on Dyrgas Gate in Three Sisters Mountain Village, is facing bankruptcy and while its board of directors initially proposed a loan from the municipality to help bail it out of trouble, it looks like the entire 44-unit project will be taken over by CCHC instead.
At a regular meeting on June 21 after a lengthy in camera discussion, elected officials defeated a bylaw intended to loan Mountain Haven $1.5 million. They then voted in favour of a motion put forward by Mayor John Borrowman to direct administration to work with CCHC and Mountain Haven to determine the feasibility of acquiring 17 non-equity units and transfer the entire housing cooperative into a managed perpetually affordable housing.
Chief Administrative Officer Lisa de Soto said over the last two months administration has consulted with stakeholders involved and examined the cooperative's business plan, even bringing in the Town's auditor, Avail LLP, to do a financial risk assessment.
The result was administration changed its recommendation to council about how to help Mountain Haven out of a financial jam. She said Mountain Haven, the Town of Canmore and CCHC are inextricably linked and this would provide those residents who have invested in an affordable home in the community “a hand up, not a handout.”
“The proposal that was approved moving forward is an acquisition strategy, if we can come to the general terms required,” de Soto said. “We engaged our auditor to do a financial analysis of a number of options, including a do nothing approach.
“Once we had a good sense of everyone's positions and risk tolerance, the most appropriate go forward option, we felt, to ensure affordability and viability of the project moving forward is to acquire the 17 units currently in the rental portfolio.”
Mountain Haven exists with a 60/40 split of equity and non-equity, or rental, units – 27 equity and 17 non-equity. That was a requirement of grant funds the project received from the provincial government, along with income requirements for all residents, which have been particularly difficult for the cooperative.
It has resulted in units sitting empty because interested owners failed to qualify under those provincial regulations, or could not qualify for a mortgage, or insurance.
“It is a convoluted and complicated setup currently,” de Soto said. “My belief, after going through and having numerous conversations … it really is for all intents and purposes a perpetually affordable housing project. It just has a different name.”
Mountain Haven sits on land provided by the municipality originally intended for PAH housing, and adjacent to two CCHC PAH projects – Coyote Ridge with the PAH ownership model and McArthur Place, a PAH rental project.
The municipality also funnelled a $2.6 million grant fund from the province to the cooperative in 2006 to help it reach completion in 2008.
In order to move toward acquisition, de Soto said the municipality has requested the Province consider the terms of the grant completed in order to remove the project from restrictive conditions that were supposed to be in place for 20 years.
As well, members of the cooperative have voted in favour of transitioning the ownership to a condominium model in order to sell the 17 non-equity units to CCHC. The grant restrictions also need to be removed for that sale to occur and to address the eligibility criteria that has hampered the project in the past.
There is also work for CCHC to do, as all units are occupied and some residents have invested in the rent-to-own option Mountain Haven provided.
CCHC would also take over property management of the project; it could rent out units, or sell them through the PAH program when an appropriate time comes, said de Soto.
She said a condition assessment has occurred, as well as a reserve study and market appraisal and the units are in good condition.
“CCHC is not buying a lemon,” de Soto said. “What we are doing is ensuring the product remains within the perpetually affordable housing portfolio and assisting Mountain Haven to come under that PAH umbrella, get professional property management services and advice and remove the restrictive grant conditions causing difficulties.”
