Burnaby to change housing grants program

City of Burnaby staff introduced several recommendations for changing the Community Benefit Bonus Affordable Housing Reserve (CBBAHR) grant program, which provides grants to housing development projects aimed at the affordable rental market. Ed Kozak, the general manager of planning and development, presented the changes at the city’s Planning and Development Committee (PDC) meeting on Feb. 12. The new recommendations will come to council for approval in the coming weeks. 

According to a staff report, the proposed changes to the CBBAHR grant program are due to the recent provincial legislation changes regarding housing development. 

“The proposed changes aim to address current challenges with implementation of the grant program, the introduction of Development Cost Charge (DCC) waivers and Amenity Cost Charge (ACC) exemptions for non-market housing and respond to new opportunities for acquisition of existing purpose-built market rental housing by non-profit organizations (NPOs) with funding from the province’s Rental Protection Fund (RPF),” the report said. 

Some key changes are that city-initiated projects on city-owned lands leased to another order of government will get a serviced site in their leases. 

If the changes are approved, each unit will have a maximum grant amount. In addition, the maximum grant amounts will be tiered by the target affordability level. Staff also recommended tiering maximum grant amounts by the number of bedrooms in a unit. 

The proposed changes will also cap the grant amounts at 10% of project capital costs. 

“This criterion is reflective of the City’s limited ability to fund new housing developments and clarifies the intent of the CBBAHR to augment a project’s budget and complement funding from other sources,” the report said. 

Some developments are not eligible for the CBBAHR grants, including those under the Rental Use Zoning Policy (RUZP), inclusionary housing regulations, and replacement rentals under the Tenant Assistance Policy (TAP). 

Committee members discussed the proposed changes and how they would affect affordable housing developments. 

“We are not the primary funding source for affordable housing. We are here to augment. We’re here to regulate and encourage,” Kozak said during the PDC meeting. “I think what we can do a better job of is communicating the intent of this. It’s not intended to expand the program. It’s intended to make it more efficient, more standardized.”

Some committee members highlighted possible challenges with the grant program. 

“Before we go too far, I think we should really project that, based on what construction is still yet to come under, what stream, whether we will have funding at all, and how long that’s going to be, and adjust that before we raise expectations because I think we’re going to have a difficult time funding BHA, which is housing as well, and also the nonprofit sector through other city grants,” said Coun. Sav Dhaliwal, about the Burnaby Housing Authority (BHA). 

Much will depend on the amount of funding available through the city’s housing fund. 

“We have just over $200 million, of which $100 million would be allocated to financing for the housing authority, which leaves about $100 million. And then, of course, there's some funds that you saw in the report that are already allocated for grants,” said Noreen Kassam, the city’s chief financial officer. 

Once the proposed changes go through, the maximum grant amount for each unit type will be $7,000 per studio, $10,000 per one-bedroom, $15,000 for a two-bedroom, and $20,000 for three-bedroom and above for the shelter rate affordability tier. For the Rent Geared to Income (RGI) rents to households with incomes not exceeding BC Housing’s Housing Income Limits (HILs), the maximum grants will be $5,000 for studios, $7,000 for one-bedroom units, $10,000 for two-bedroom units and $15,000 for three-bedrooms and above.

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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