It is another step forward for the social housing venture, Under One Roof.
Council approved changes made to the BC Housing Memorandum of Understanding for the project, at its meeting Tuesday.
The District is partnering with Squamish Helping Hands Society by leasing the land for the building while SHHS will run the homeless shelter, food bank and housing facility with funding from BC Housing.
MOU’s are executed in order to clarify expectations and understandings between all parties, a staff report said, noting the one area where the District made substantive changes was in capital and operating funding.
At a Jan. 8 council budget meeting, the District agreed to complete all infrastructure projects required for the lot to be ready for development; specifically the stormwater retention on the pond’s forebay and an oil-grit separator. There, the total of $600,000 in funding was requested from the 2019 long-term budget.
“Staff have now recognized that their five-year financial plan needs to recognize full expenditure in the 2018 plan,” the report explained, so that the District funds the project in its entirety. “This is part of establishing how the construction budget will be funded and what portion we will provide to resolve the stormwater and forebay issues,” said Gary Buxton, general manager of community planning and infrastructure.
Some of the work they had to do regardless, Buxton acknowledged.
“That pond doesn’t function very well,” he said.
“The oil-grit separator was going to have to get done no matter what.”
The MOU is simply a way to get a common understanding about how the project will move forward, Buxton added, noting once BC Housing receives the amendments the project will just need a building permit to move forward.
“They’re ready to break ground,” he said.
