CRD looks to bank land for housing

Helps proposes initiative to ease homelessness in region

The Capital Regional District is looking to bank land to be used for temporary modular housing units to help ease the homelessness crisis.

“There is not a lot of land in this region and we are going to miss an opportunity if we do not purchase land that can be used [for modular units],” said Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps in proposing the initiative.

Helps called it “a double bang for our buck,” saying the land could be used in the longer term for the Regional Housing First Program, which aims to create supported and affordable units in the region.

The province’s recent budget update included $291 million over two years to build 2,000 modular housing units for homeless people and $170 million for operations including round-the-clock staffing and support services. The units are designed to be temporary and movable.

After considerable debate, CRD directors agreed to a motion put forward by Helps.

CRD staff are to engage local governments to determine possible sites for modular housing and report back by Dec. 17. Staff will also work with B.C. Housing to identify sites for purchase and bank those lands with funds to be made available through the $51 million remaining in Regional Housing First Program.

CRD chairwoman Barb Desjardins is to meet with provincial representatives to see what portion of provincial funding or what number of modular units will be allocated to the capital region.

The modular housing, such as the 40 units built at 220 Terminal Ave. in Vancouver as part of a pilot project, can be quickly assembled to bring people in from the cold, Helps said.

“Metro Vancouver is going to have 400 units of modular housing installed by December. That’s 400 people who are living outside or in shelters or on couches, housed in December already,” Helps said.

“These things take very little time to set up, but there’s a dearth of available land.”