“Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.”
Ah, yes — but what if the home is so “humble” that it is really a dump? Or if the cost of renting (let alone buying) a reasonably decent home is far above the portion of your income that you should have to pay for housing and still have enough left for food, clothing and the other essentials of life?
That is the problem facing many people in this community (as in others across Canada) and it is the challenge assumed by the Creston Valley Community Housing Society (CVCHS).
The society has been addressing this challenge since 2008, working with the BC Non-Profit Housing Association to determine the extent of the problem and the areas of greatest need. The latest answers are that 59 per cent of renters in Creston pay more than a third of their income for housing (28 per cent pay more than half) and that families with children have the most urgent needs.
Responding as best it can to those figures, the CVCHS has under construction a six-unit affordable (low-rent) project at 215 25th Ave. S. It will have four three-bedroom units and two two-bedroomers. The contractor is Mountain Spring Holdings and Christine Ross is the architect.
The estimated total cost of this project is $1,226,055. Of that, $800,000 will be covered by grants of $400,000 from the Columbia Basin Trust, $200,000 from Ottawa’s Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and $200,000 from BC Housing. Another $310,000 will come from a BC Housing mortgage that will be repaid from the rents, affordable though they will be.
In addition, donations have already been received of $15,000 from the Creston Valley Gleaners Society (which also gave $25,000 in start-up funds in 2008), $4,000 from the Creston-Kootenay Foundation, $1,000 from the Creston Valley Lions Club, and $2,700 from the Creston Ministerial Association.
Donations from various individuals so far total $5,000, and a dinner and Shave the Stache at Jimmy’s Pub in January produced another $4,000. People have promised to do at least some of the post-construction facility management, cleaning, landscaping, and lawn care and snow shovelling.
In June, the Creston-Kootenay Foundation will stage a gala dinner to raise money to ensure the lowest possible rents at the housing project. The Foundation’s Signe Miller cites Habitat for Humanity’s observations that such projects benefit the communities involved in several ways.
These include the money spent on construction (more than $1million in this case), safe housing and better health for the residents and reduced stress on resident children.
At this point, however, funding is still required to ensure the solvency of what is both a vitally needed social project and a pioneering (for Creston) adventure in community action.
If you can help even a little bit, contact CVCHS chair Heather More at 250-402-3343 or heathermmore@gmail.com. There are tax-deductible receipts for donations of more than $10.
—CRESTON VALLEY COMMUNITY HOUSING SOCIETY