Capital Region Housing partners with developer on affordable housing project
Subsidized tenants to pay 20 per cent below market rent in Jackson Heights
Edmonton’s affordable housing crisis has grown so big and so fast that it’s now impossible for governments to deal with on their own, said one developer who is standing up to help.
“There’s nothing like walk the talk,” said Curtis Way, president of RMS Group, which is including 35 units of subsidized housing in a new 174-unit four-storey walk-up project it is building in Mill Wood’s Jackson Heights.
His team celebrated a sodturning ceremony Monday and a partnership with Capital Region Housing that is believed to be a first in Alberta, if not a first across the county.
“The problem of affordable housing is way bigger than most people understand,” said Way, who sat on an affordable housing task force for Edmonton in 2015. That task force said Edmonton has to get private industry involved. It can build more quickly and at less cost than government and other not-for-profit organizations.
The new building — Pine Creek Manor at 50 Street and Jamha Road — came out of a request for proposals a year ago.
Capital Region Housing is investing its own capital built up from the rent it collects on its 5,200 units across Edmonton. The two partners will own the building together, with Capital Region Housing placing tenants in the subsidized suites.
Subsidized tenants will pay an average 20 per cent less than market rent, which will still allow Capital Region to make some money on the project to finance upkeep, said Capital Region Housing executive director Greg Dewling. That’s because a 15 to 20 per cent return on investment is typical in the rental industry. The project has no additional public funding or government grants.
The subsidized units and market-rate units will be indistinguishable, said Dewling. “Tenants will be able to rise to market rent. They won’t have to move.”
Capital Region Housing has more than 6,000 families on the approved waiting list for housing help, more than the number of units it owns or administers across the city. City officials have previously said 24,700 households that earn less than $60,000 are spending more than half of their income on rent, one of the reasons why Edmonton’s Food Bank is busy.
“We can’t do this all by ourselves,” said Dewling. With the joint venture, “we’re able to get more units to market quicker.”
Way said the project did require many conversations with the finance community and internal stakeholders to convince them it is a workable model. It gives the developer a reliable tenant stream, but likely reduces the number of buyers should it ever wish to sell the building.
Families moving into the twobedroom mid-market units will be quite independent. They will be from the bottom third of Capital Region Housing ’s wait list, said Dewling, which has those with the highest needs at the top.