RDOS gives breaks to OK Falls project

26-unit seniors complex receives tax exemptions, grant-in-aid and won’t have to pay development fees

A planned 26-unit affordable housing complex for seniors in Okanagan Falls got a major financial lift Thursday.

Okanagan Falls, the only community in the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen without affordable seniors housing, will have a three-storey, non-profit apartment building by next year if all goes according to plan.

The 26 spaces would include 24 one-bedroom units and two two-bedroom suites.

The project will be located at 5080 Ninth Ave. and headed by the non-profit South Skaha Housing Society, which hopes to break ground this summer.

The RDOS board voted unanimously Thursday on multiple bylaws to allow for 10 years of tax exemptions, to be reviewed annually, plus waive $109,200 in development cost charges and provide a grant-inaid for $21,165 worth of building and permit fees.

That funding comes on top of a provincial capital grant of $5.4 million from BC Housing.

Andy Orr, who appeared in front of the RDOS board Thursday on behalf of the South Skaha Housing Society, said BC Housing had staff’s “feet to the fire” to get the project submitted before April for fear it would miss the construction season.

Area D (Okanagan Falls-Kaleden) director Tom Siddon thanked his fellow board members for following through with the project, one he has been working on with the housing society for years.

He noted the $21,165 from the grant-in-aid budget may affect some other grants the board usually gives out.

“It means that a number of other groups that are accustomed to getting grant funding each year may not get grant funding this year,” said Siddon, but “this is a priority.”