Rental building for Indigenous tenants opens on Boundary Road

A four-storey, 23-unit rental building for Indigenous people has opened on Boundary Road near 22nd Avenue in East Vancouver. The building is in the process of accepting tenants who will pay at least 15 per cent below market rates.

Three levels of government made the announcement Monday that the Lu'ma Native Housing Society development was supported by $6.4 million in federal funds in the form of an insured loan, and a $4.4-million grant from the province.

The project's 23 total units include seven suites made for low-income Indigenous tenants who will pay rents 30 per cent below the median household income in the area.

The federal funding comes through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.'s Rental Construction Financing Initiative, which supports the building of rental housing for middle-class families in expensive housing markets.

The project “will be the first affordable housing option serving urban Indigenous households in the neighbourhood, an area that is accessible for seniors and families to transit, shopping, schools and other services,” said Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart.

The total cost of the project wasn't available.

Kent Patenaude, president of Lu'ma, acknowledged “our project partners,” including the CMHC, B.C. Housing and the city, saying that the project “is a wonderful example of what can be achieved.”