The first residents are moving into a long, long awaited affordable housing project in Delbrook.
Hollyburn Community Housing Society’s Hollybrook apartment will house low-to-moderate-income residents in 86 subsidized one-, two- and three-bedroom units in a four-storey building on what was once the old Delbrook Rec Centre’s parking lot.
“As the housing crisis continues to dominate public discourse and questions around urban density persist, the recent move-ins at Hollybrook offer a welcome sign of progress. Already, we’re seeing the early formation of social ties and a growing sense of stability – key ingredients that will contribute to the long-term vitality and cohesion of the neighbourhood,” said Mark Friesen, executive director of Hollyburn Community Services Society.
Under BC Housing’s formula, 20 per cent of the homes are subsidized to be affordable for residents living on disability or income assistance rates. Half of the units are priced to be no more than 30 per cent of a family’s gross annual income, and the remaining 30 per cent will be offered at rents considered to be at the low end of the market.
For Shiraya Bucknell, who grew up in the area but was forced to leave the North Shore in search of cheaper rents, it marks a long-awaited return to stability. She found herself paying $2,400 per month to live in a mouldy Vancouver apartment with rats.
“Which is insanity when you have two kids,” she said. “My mom was here. All our family and supports are here, so it was really hard to be stuck out there with my one-year-old. I was really, really struggling.”
After a year of applying for different affordable housing option, Bucknell recently received word she and her family and their dog had been accepted at Hollybrook. They were among the very first to move in.
“I’m still crying over it. Still to this day,” she said. “We don’t have to move, ever and I’ve been moving every two years since I was in Grade 2.”
While the property managers were vetting applicants, a fire tore through the Silverlynn seniors’ housing building in Lynn Valley, displacing 41 residents. At least 15 have taken up Hollyburn’s offer to move into Hollybrook.
Another eight Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) families are moving in. Squamish elder Xele’milh-Doris Paul was on hand to offer a blessing at the grand opening.
“It just warms my heart that someone’s going to be able to lay their head on a pillow tonight and feel safe and be warm and be protected by the development of this building,” she said.
Those are exactly the kinds of outcomes the provincial government had in mind when chipping in $15 million for construction, plus just under $500,000 per year in ongoing subsidies to keep rents affordable, said Bowinn Ma, North Vancouver-Lonsdale MLA.
“Projects like this one are part of the work that our government has been engaged in over the last eight years to invest in social housing projects and address the availability of affordable housing on the North Shore,” she said. “For 86 low-to-moderate income households, Hollybrook offers a life-changing level of housing security. Many of the individuals and families who will live here would otherwise be forced to leave the communities they call home because they can no longer afford to stay.”
The project was also made possible by the District of North Vancouver putting up the land and waiving development fees.
Acting Mayor Catherine Pope attended the opening and offered deep praise for the project.
“I am delighted to be here to open this beautiful complex and apartment building. In fact, I think it’s one of the nicest affordable housing buildings I’ve ever seen,” she said. “These highly subsidized affordable units are desperately needed in North Vancouver, and to have this addition of housing for families and singles and seniors and one- and two- and three-bedroom units is a welcome addition to our community.”
Even with the affordable housing coming online, the new supply is nowhere near enough to meet the demand, with more than 800 applications filed.
The grand opening event was attended by dozens of local elected officials, dignitaries, housing advocates and non-profit organizations, several of whom brought up another a below market housing project that might have been for the site, which had been pitched for affordable housing as early as 2016.
In 2018, District of North Vancouver council had all but approved a different six-storey, middle-income oriented apartment and seniors’ respite centre for the property. That proposal had been unpopular with neighbours and, in one of their first votes after the 2018 municipal election, the district’s new council voted 4-3 to cancel it. They later restarted public consultations and council then rezoned the land for a shorter building, which Hollyburn won an open bid to operate.
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