A new housing initiative for low-income seniors in Gibsons is in the works.
On June 4, Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons announced the Kiwanis Housing Society will build 75 new affordable rental units for seniors.
“Everyone should be able to age in comfort and dignity, and for 75 seniors in Gibsons, that will now be a reality,” Simons said in a release.
The housing development will be located at 824 and 840 Kiwanis Way, according to the province.
The Kiwanis Housing Society is run by the Gibsons Lions Club, vice president and acting chair Jim Barnes told Coast Reporter.
The Lions Club currently owns the Kiwanis Village property where two BC Housing-owned seniors’ apartment buildings are located. It is on this property where the new units will be built. The two buildings currently on the site include an older one-storey building with 20 units, and a three-storey building with 22 units.
The new housing project will introduce about 75 affordable rental units over three phases, Barnes said.
First, the Gibsons Lions Club will build a new rental building with 24 or 25 apartments in the parking lot next to the newer building. The current residents in the older building will move in to the new units, then the older building will be torn down. In its place, another new building with around 45 units will be built.
The Lions Club will manage the three buildings on behalf of BC Housing.
The club won’t be accepting applications for the housing units until just before the completion of the first new build, Barnes said. Preference will be given to applicants who already live on the Sunshine Coast.
More details about the project will be made public when they become available.
The project is one of 47 funded through the second intake of the Building BC: Community Housing Fund, which will bring approximately 2,455 new rental homes to people throughout the province.
Funding amounts for the individual projects won’t be announced until groundbreaking ceremonies are held, BC NDP communications officer Jesse Gervais told Coast Reporter.
More than 1,000 of the homes will be for Indigenous people, the release said.
Of the Community Housing Fund projects, 50 per cent of the units will be for households with incomes up to $64,000, while 30 per cent of the units will be for incomes up to $74,000.
The remaining 20 per cent of the homes will be for people on very low incomes, including people on disability assistance or income assistance.
