News

“Working together to find ways to keep our families and residents safely and affordably housed.”

Hornby Island has an amazing history of making our dreams happen, from the Community Hall to the Co-op, the Elder Village, Room To Grow, the Pre-School, the Free Store, the new Health Clinic, and now our Community School rising from the ashes. All were, or are, community driven initiatives. The summer of 2018 saw the creation of the Hornby Island Housing Society, HIHS. The members of ISLA and Elder Housing voted to join their two societies into one in order to focus on affordable community housing for people of all ages. HIHS is the result of this merger. Both boards of directors devoted months of careful, detailed work into the process of joining forces. It was not a simple task. Most of this work has now been accomplished, and we have moved on to board development, as we all learn some new skills in our larger, combined board.

We all recognize that it is a challenge to provide permanent affordable housing on a small island where property values continue to rise and the demand for summer vacation rentals only seems to increase. To be well balanced, in fact to survive, a community must provide adequate housing for everyone. People who work here year-round, young families with children in our school, retirees with modest means, all are finding it very difficult to remain on Hornby in the face of this economic pressure. But our community needs them. To stay, they need somewhere secure, comfortable, and attractive to live. HIHS is working to help address this issue.

Our current project, started by ISLA and now under the HIHS banner, is being designed as rental homes in a village like setting with green spaces, gardens, paths and trails, and some shared facilities, a healthy place for children to play and grow, and for adults to have both privacy and a sense of community. The Elder Village started as a dream and with hard work and fundraising it became a reality.  Similarly, we are working hard and gathering funds to make this new village a reality, and we’re closer than we’ve even been.  This isn’t an impossible dream. Hold the vision! Together we can make it happen.

June 17, 2018

Dear Member of the Hornby Elder Housing Society,

We hope that you have heard by now that Elder Housing and ISLA are seriously considering joining together as one society. We are writing to encourage you to come out to the upcoming information meeting where members of the Elder Housing and ISLA boards of directors will discuss the steps that would be involved in joining our two societies, and answer questions on the risks and benefits involved. We will also have a chance to discuss the provincial grant that this one society would be seeking for the Beulah Creek property.

The information meeting will be held at 3:00 pm Sunday, June 24^th at New Horizons.

This is a big step for Elder Housing, and we would like to hear your input. Following this meeting, the boards of directors of ISLA and Elder Housing will decide whether to call Special General Meetings for their respective memberships, so that the members can vote on the motions required to join our societies. We are hoping that you will be able to come on Sunday, June 24, to take part in this important discussion.

In case you have not already seen it, we are attaching the information sheet that was distributed to the Hornby Island community in May.

Sincerely,

JoAnn Harrison

President of the Hornby Island Elder Housing Society

~ BC Housing recently announced provincial funding for $1.9 billion for affordable rental housing to be rolled out over 10 years. The first round for this highly competitive funding concludes in September, 2018.

~ ISLA has an application soon to be submitted to BC Housing for rental units at Beulah Creek.

~ This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to make a project of this scale happen on Hornby Island. ISLA explored a host of development options; among the models considered, partnering with BC Housing to create rental homes emerged as the most financially feasible for the society while remaining affordable for residents.

~ The BC Housing Director of Regional Development met with board members of both ISLA and Hornby Elder Housing (EH) on the island in August of last year. He was thoroughly impressed with the work of our two societies and is a strong and influential advocate for adding to Hornby’s stock of rental housing through the Beulah Creek project.

~ BC Housing has strongly recommended that EH and ISLA join forces to form one housing society. Their rationale is that dealing with more than one housing society in a community with a population of only 1000 is redundant and inefficient. In the eyes of BC Housing, the formation of one society for Hornby would considerably strengthen ISLA’s application for funding. As well, EH has a long history of successfully managing rental housing – a skill that BC Housing requires in an applicant. In the fiercely competitive application process for government money every effort to submit the strongest proposal has to be considered.

~ As a result, EH and ISLA are in the process of exploring the formation of one housing society for Hornby. We are examining the potential for coming together from all angles – exploring the pros and cons while doing our legal, financial and ethical due diligence.  Our two boards are in agreement that the potential benefits of becoming one society are promising and that we should actively investigate that goal.  We are committed to ensuring that life for the residents of the Elder Housing Village would not be affected in any way. Both boards, through their in-depth analysis of the risks and benefits, will ensure this condition is met before making any determination regarding support for this initiative.

The society will have two distinct projects: The Elder Housing Village and The Beulah Creek Village. Elder Housing will change the society name to The Hornby Island Housing Society, to better reflect the broader resident population. The two boards will join forces to manage the two distinct projects, serving elders at Elder Housing Village and all ages at Beulah Creek.

~ Following are additional benefits foreseen by forming one society:

• Simplifying the Hornby housing picture provides a more streamlined approach for provincial and municipal funding requests while eliminating the competitive aspect of two societies seeking government money.
• Economies of scale. Built into the budget for Beulah Creek are ongoing paid positions supporting the project – maintenance worker, bookkeeper/accountant, operations manager. Having these professional roles and resources available to both communities would free the board to devote its time and energy to governance and policy making. This would reduce the burden that comes with the many operational tasks required of the present volunteer board and for future board members.

Next Steps:

1. An information meeting for members of the two societies is planned for 3:00pm Sunday, June 24^th at New Horizons. The meeting will be announced in local papers.

Upon completion of due diligence, if both boards conclude that the forming of one society best supports the housing needs of Hornby residents, Special General Meetings of ISLA and Elder Housing will be held to vote on motions in support of this collaboration.

May 17, 2018