Town of Gibsons staff will work with the Sunshine Coast Housing Society (SCHS) and Click Homes on phase one of an affordable housing project that will identify parcels of land owned by the Town for possible development.
The SCHS/Click Homes project was introduced at the Dec. 15 committee of the whole meeting by delegates Matt Thompson from SCHS and Scott Fearnley from Click Homes.
The eventual goal of the project is to build affordable housing provided by Click Homes on Town-owned property in a clustered housing configuration.
“We’re looking at working through January and February with Town staff on phase one, then returning with a suite of options for probably March to council that would outline recommendations,” Thompson said. “We’re flexible. More important for us is to see that the Town is willing to come to the table to discuss.”
At the council meeting later that night, Coun. Silas White made a motion that council support phase one of the project. The motion was voted in by mayor and councillors, excluding Coun. Charlene SanJenko who was not in attendance.
“The director of planning and I will make ourselves available to make this work,” chief administrative officer Emanuel Machado said at the council meeting.
SCHS and Click Homes will also ask the Sunshine Coast Planning Council for a $3,000 grant as part of phase one.
Thompson and Fearnley identified in their report that median dwelling values in Gibsons increased by 150 per cent between 2001 and 2011. However, according to Thompson, median household income rose by 50 per cent in the same time span, while median family income increased by only 33 per cent.
Thompson and Fearnley’s joint proposal is to develop affordable clustered housing in the Town for a mixture of ages, tenures (affordable ownership and rental) and household types – meaning seniors, families and single occupants all living together in the same cluster.
The houses offered by Click Homes range in size between roughly 18 to 280 square metres.
“We have excellent savings on energy, they’re very cost effective to heat. We use top quality materials in our windows and wall paneling and an engineered roof system that’s one of the best in the world today, and a local B.C. product,” Fearnley said. “What’s interesting to us is how many people are looking for a smaller footprint.”
Click Homes is certified by the Canadian Standards Association, which ensures that buildings are built to code. This also means that the homes can be mortgaged.
The houses are built indoors in a factory in Port Mellon. They come out of the factory in two pieces and are “clicked” together on site.
Town of Gibsons council meets again on Jan. 12.
