Dear Editor: Re: Housing money is piling up, Burnaby NOW, Aug. 28.
I applaud council's willingness to revisit housing alternatives. As a member of a co-op and active participant on my co-op board, I can say it is a great way to live. You know your neighbours and enjoy the best benefits of both owning and renting.
Co-operative housing only requires financing to start construction, and the members then pay back the mortgage, utilities, etc. through affordable monthly housing charges.
The city could recoup any investment by working with the Canadian Housing and Mortgage Corporation to start the ball rolling and finance the building of a co-op. There are more than enough funds available in the community benefit bonus housing fund to cover construction costs to start the building.
But why another study? The city had one in 2007 (http://bit. ly/15V5XBL) regarding affordable housing proposals. As well, they have access to innumerable reports from other cities on the issue.
Also blaming the other levels of government for a lack of civic investment in social housing is beyond tiresome.
The B.C. Court of Appeal has now ruled several times that social housing - particularly permanent emergency shelter beds (of which Burnaby currently has none) - clearly falls within civic jurisdiction. And one of these days, someone is going to file suit in the courts to extend this precedent from the City of Victoria to the City of Burnaby.
(That's not to say that the other levels haven't dropped the ball on their part of the housing issue, ... but the city has the means to do what they can to fill in with some simple use of city land and rezoning.) The last Burnaby Citizens' Association mayor, Doug Drummond, created the civic housing fund - 20 per cent of developer density bonuses towards building housing.
If Mayor Derek Corrigan wants to see a local social housing success authorized by his own party, he should go visit the now-complete Habitat for Humanity project located on Government Road.
By combining low-cost finance (donated by financial institutions), recycled building materials (donated by construction and demolition firms), volunteer labour and at least 500 measured hours of "sweat equity" from each set of would-be home owners, Habitat has now finished housing 27 families here in Burnaby.
Why couldn't the City of Burnaby offer Habitat another piece of unused city-owned property? Or better yet, how about several scattered sites? If that is too risky for the current council, then they could donate land or funding to open a permanent outreach resource centre for homeless and those at risk of homelessness.
Carrie McLaren
Burnaby
