Revelstoke’s Community Housing Society is presenting plans for their 12-unit affordable rental housing to city council on Feb. 25.
Society member and city economic development director Alan Mason said the rental housing initiative is targeting completion for Dec. 1, meaning a tight approval and construction timeline for the rest of the year.
The project, to be located near the BC Ambulance station on Oscar Street, includes four accessible one-bedroom units with a projected rent of $550 a month, and eight, two-bedroom units with a projected rent of $750 per month.
In September of 2013, the project was set back when funding partners BC Housing and the Columbia Basin Trust informed the society that they would receive $1.2 million in funding support – less than the $2 million hoped for.
That led to steps to scale back the project and find savings; the society also continued to lobby for additional funds.
At the Feb. 25 city council meeting, society member Mark McKee will announce a new funding commitment from BC Housing and the Columbia Basin Trust of $1,487,883, which was confirmed in January of this year.
In a timeline they will present to council, the group hopes to have city approvals and permits wrapped up by mid-April.
Mason said the focus has been on keeping costs down. “We really held the line [on costs],” Mason said of recent design changes. “We want to keep the rents affordable; that’s why we are doing this.”
He said the tight construction schedule was partly motivated by the need to meet a deadline to keep their “attractive” mortgage rate deal.