There are 701 affordable housing units in the District of Squamish pipeline that could be approved in the near future.
According to a staff report to council, Squamish currently has 386 affordable housing units, and there are over 700 purpose-built rentals and affordable housing units that are in the pipeline.
These include 232 units at the Westwinds project in Downtown Squamish, 76 at Buckley Avenue housing project, and 140 at Waterfront Landing.
The district also plans to create a non-profit society to operate an affordable housing program in town.
Working with the local non-profit agencies, the society will start small, with one staff member, and will have four core functions.
It will be the single coordinated access for non-market affordable housing in the District, and will coordinate tenants for all affordable housing in the District.
It will support affordable housing providers through collective procurement related to maintenance and property management, and maintain social enterprise property management and tenanting services available to market and affordable housing providers.
The Society will unify wait lists and the application process for all affordable housing units operated either by the District and other non-profit agencies.
Based on financial analysis of organizations with a similar scope, the society is expected to have an annual operating budget between $215,000 and $230,000 when operating at full capacity.
Last year, council directed staff to finalize the establishment of a new housing agency that will facilitate growth and management of affordable housing stock in 2020.
