I would like to clear up a few items from the March 7, 2019 cover story, “Women’s Centre Housing Project Needs Money, Fast.”
Many in the community may be hearing about our proposed women’s housing project for the first time and we want to assure our neighbours that we would embark on full consultation should our funding request to BC Housing be approved and the project becomes viable.
My appearance at District council on March 5 was to request a letter of support from council to BC Housing highlighting how our proposed project would benefit the community and why the Howe Sound Women’s Centre would benefit from receiving news of the status of our request as soon as possible.
BC Housing will be distributing funding for projects that house women throughout the province over the coming years. Due to potential future development impacting our capacity to realize our vision, we are hoping to ask BC Housing to give us consideration as soon as possible.
At the end of the article, it states that Coun. Chris Pettingill wondered if the District could somehow put a hold on the land adjacent to us and I would like to make it clear that at no point did the Women’s Centre request this.
I want to assure our neighbours and community that our organization would in no way attempt to hinder any re-zoning process.
Additionally, I misstated when I said that one of our neighbours has informally agreed to sell us their property. What in fact took place, I have since learned, is that HSWC was approached by a local realtor in March 2018 indicating that his client, our neighbour, may be interested in selling to us. I am unsure whether any additional discussions occurred beyond this and I have reached out to our neighbour to discuss further.
We thank the community for their ongoing support.
Ashley Oakes , Executive director of Howe Sound Women’s Centre Society
Editor’s note: The Chief added an update to the story to include Oakes’ clarification.
