New affordable housing in the Garibaldi Estates may soon be available to seniors thanks to a local church project. St. John the Divine Anglican Church has successfully applied for seed money to develop affordable housing on the church's Diamond Road property, and the next step is to discuss plans with the entire congregation, said Rev. Michael Stuchbery.
"At this point it's a very vague idea," he said.
Preliminary ideas for the development include either incorporating the church's hall into housing or knocking it down to build a new hall and three or four stories of housing over what is currently the parking lot. A house on the church's property may also be razed to create new parking.
"At this point it's all up in the air," said Stuchbery.
Minister of Labour and Housing Joe Fontana announced Tuesday (March 15) that 32 community-based organizations in B.C. and Yukon will receive up to $20,000 each to develop affordable housing project proposals under the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's (CMHC) Seed Funding initiative.
Stuchbery said that the idea for the development initially came to a small group whose first step was to see if they could receive a grant to draw out a proposal. Now that funding to develop the proposal has been approved, the group will bring it to the congregation April 10.
"I'll be able to tell you a lot more about it in a couple weeks time," said Stuchbery.
