Port Coquitlam residents will have their say in the design and rental mix of a townhouse and apartment project being proposed for low income women and children.
The Atira Women’s Resource Society is hoping to build an 87-unit complex on land Metro Vancouver owns at 2115-2127 Prairie Ave.
If approved, the project would feature a mix of shelter, housing income limit and near market rates, where all leases would be in women’s names. Plans for a 60-space non-profit daycare and a health clinic are also being considered.
“We want feedback from the community on absolutely everything,” said Janice Abbot, CEO of Atira, which has built and runs similar social housing projects in Vancouver, Richmond and Surrey.
“We will be focusing on women who are struggling with inadequate or inappropriate housing in the Tri-Cities or women who may be homeless,” Abbott told the Tri-City News. “The intent is to create an intergenerational community of women — women who are older, families, women who are younger, women who are aging out out of foster care,” she added.
The PoCo project is estimated to cost $24 million and the builder would be TL Housing Solutions Ltd.
A preliminary sketch has been made of the project, which would have a combination of studio, one, two, three, four bedroom units and one five-bedroom unit. There will be underground parking and the housing will be built around a courtyard.
Abbott said preliminary inquiries in the neighborhood that includes the catchment for Kwayhquitlum middle school is that day care is needed. As well, the health clinic has support but would require buy-in from Fraser Health.
Metro Vancouver has yet to finalize the lease but was the agency that put the request for proposals for non-profit housing on its vacant land. Abbott said she hopes the lease fees for the land will be for “nominal value” and that a provincial grant will be forthcoming to keep the rents affordable.
“We have a new government in place — there may be an opportunity to increase affordability,” Abbott said.
The project has a number of other hurdles, a rezoning is required to change the land use from townhouse residential to comprehensive residential, to allow for apartments, and a change to the Official Community Plan is needed, as well.
Abbott said effort is being made to ensure the project fits in with the neighborhood, but the public will have its say in two meetings, Oct. 18, where preliminary plans will be presented and Nov. 22 where plans refined by neighborhood comment will be shown.
Both meetings will be at the Terry Fox Library from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
PoCo Coun. Glen Pollock who has been a proponent of the project from the beginning said the need for affordable housing, especially for low income families headed by women, is crucial.
He said he knows of one woman who is living in her Honda Civic and another family that is couch-surfing because they can’t find a place to rent that they can afford.
The Tri-Cities Homelessness Task Group and the Soroptimists International of the Tri-Cities are both supporting the project, a factor in bring Atira to PoCo, said Abbott.
“In terms of the support and the welcome we’ve received its been fantastic,” Abbott said, noting that Atira has been working in the community on the project for more than a year.
A website will be up and running by Oct. 18 — the first meeting date — to provide information on the project, she said.
