Mayne Island Housing Forum

Mayne Island Now Has a Housing Society

In the last month we applied for and received non-profit society status. This is a significant milestone in the long journey to getting something built for Mayne Islanders.

The Seniors Housing project continues. We met with the Islands Trust planner and clarified several important issues. We have also had preliminary discussions with the owners of a couple of
properties that may be suitable.

We recently made an exploratory fact-finding trip to Denman and Hornby Islands - both of which have actually built some (but not much) affordable housing and are planning more. Here are a few points from that visit: Land donation is almost a prerequisite - on both Islands the societies received land donations. This was facilitated on Denman by the Islands Trust allowing the owner of 70 acres to build a couple more dwellings on the land in exchange for donating 20 acres to the Society. Money - we found out about many sources of grants, and that different levels and agencies of government have been quite generous, and we are now more confident we can get financial assistance. There were also lessons for us on community engagement, design, and regulatory hurdles.

Why do we Mayne Islanders want to improve the availability of affordable housing? Because without it we’ll suffer the loss of our neighbours, our helpers and our diversity as a vibrant community.

You may well want to help, here are some ways you can:

Become a member, only $10.
Join the Board – we would love to have some more energetic Board members, especially ones with useful skills (e.g. law, development, finance…).
Donate land.
Donate money.
Support an Island family by providing a loan for purchasing a home.
Build a rent-to-own dwelling.

Renter’s Survey: We’ll be conducting a survey of renters to flesh out the findings of the recently released CRD housing survey. If you are a renter you can call Cathy at (604) 521-3853 or go to
www.surveymonkey.com/r/JJPBY8V to complete it online. 

In the next few weeks, using this survey as one of the inputs, we’ll be working towards deciding on a project with our members (join up to participate). Also, we’ll be represented with the other
Mayne volunteer groups at the Saturday markets (thanks to the Lions’ initiative).
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You can always contact us via [email protected].
Submitted by Andrew Smith