Fernie may soon have more affordable rental housing options.
The Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) and BC Housing have selected four proposals to move to the next phase of the Affordable Rental Housing Initiative.
Elk Valley Family Society’s (EVFS) proposal was one of the four selected. The society will now have to develop a full response, including a complete business case, by the fall of 2012.
“At this point, this isn’t a commitment of funding but rather an indication to proceed to the next phase of the project,” said Amy Ambrosone, manager of planning and development for CBT.
The proposed rentals are in the Veneto Home Ownership Units.
CBT and BC housing will make their final funding decision before the end of the year.
CBT is contributing $5 million toward the three-year, $10 million initiative that will support new affordable rental housing projects in communities across the Columbia Basin.
“Projects that aren’t successful in this round do have an opportunity to reapply when we do our next calls for proposals in Spring of 2013,” said Ambrosone.
The CBT was created to deliver social, economic and environmental benefits to the entire Columbia Basic Region and to strengthen the well being of the area.
“We saw an opportunity to secure some more affordable housing for Fernie,” said Corrie Hurlburt, property manager for the EVFS, which partnered with Parastone Development for this proposal.
Hurburt has been working with EVFS for 15 years and said there is she feels a lot of job satisfaction in terms of meeting the needs of the community. “It doesn’t get any better than this.”