Cottage Grove’s loss will be a future affordable housing project’s gain after Saanich council Monday approved re-allocating $112,000 to the Saanich Affordable Housing Fund.
The money, which was granted to the Cool Aid Society for an affordable housing project at 3207 Quadra St. in 2014, was never used as B.C. Housing took over the project in 2015.
That project turned out to be Cottage Grove, a 45-unit seniors affordable-housing complex.
The grant was contingent on receiving invoices from the society. As Cool Aid was no longer calling the shots, it couldn’t do that and the money was never touched.
Cool Aid Society was designated the recipient of the funds in the original motion. Since the society did not incur the project costs, it was not eligible to receive the funds. B.C. Housing was also not eligible to receive the money because they were not the designated party in the council motion.
The district’s Affordable Housing Fund supports development of non-market affordable housing.
The fund will be enriched with the windfall, while Saanich staff intend to beef it up by developing eligibility criteria, establishing a reserve fund and finalizing the district’s community amenity contribution policy to direct developer contributions to the fund.
