Bowen Bulletin

“Success has many ingredients, but the greatest of these is confidence.” If ever there has ever been a group that embodied that philosophy it is the Bowen Community Housing Association. They have been working away very deliberately on a plan for putting families into affordable homes. Since their inception in 2005 they have developed strategies, policies and processes to the point where they are now asking potential clients to make application for the opportunity to purchase the first affordable housing units when they become available. The kicker is that there are no units, nor is there any land to put them on. At first glance this may seem a bit silly but, the potential alternative would be that land or funding could become available but the association had no willing buyers waiting for the units.

The applications to be on the Purchase Waitlist are available now. For the next three months a point system will be used to help establish who should be at the top of the list. Part of the application procedure will be a mortgage review to ensure that successful applicants will be properly qualified. (Details can be found at bowenhousing.org.) It would be good to know much demand there really is for this type of housing ownership. If it is found that the demand is very high, there is a greater chance that a property owner will come forward with a proposal or that the Municipality will consider using some of the Community Lands.

Some of you are probably wondering just how this whole thing can work. First of all you have to understand the difference between affordable housing and social housing. Social housing is subsidized every month for as long as it exists. Affordable housing is created by means of some fancy footwork at the beginning but never has to be subsidized after it is built. The trick with detached homes or townhouses is that you have to get the property for free or very close to it. In the ideal situation a property developer would transfer a portion of their land to the Municipality in exchange for increased density or relaxed road standards or some other incentive. Then the Municipality would give the land to an affordable housing corporation who would in turn allow families to build homes on it. The families would have mortgages on the houses but, because the land was free, they would be able to afford it. At some future date they could buy the land from the housing corporation or, if they decided to sell, they could sell their house but not the land.

When you read the stories of how difficult it has been for other affordable housing projects to get off the ground you realize that our problems are not that great. A number of important variables are tipping the balance in favour of this actually working out in the next few years. It looks like mortgage rates are going to stay low so a family earning $60,000 per year can get a $280,000 mortgage for less than 30% of their annual income. Building starts are slowing down so we will soon have qualified local builders looking for work and there are a couple of opportunities out there for acquiring some land. Failing the acquisition of land from developers a case could be made for using some of the Community Lands, particularly the area behind the school.

Of course building new homes for families would satisfy only a portion of our housing needs. We also need more rental units, seniors’ housing and social housing. Moving forward with projects that will satisfy these needs appear to be tied to the development of Snug Cove and the development of Snug Cove isn’t going anywhere until some sewer lines are laid and when that might happen is anybody’s guess. If it drags on for another couple of years, maybe some of the people from Community Housing will be enticed to employ their methodical, straight line approach to getting the sewer systems built.