Non-market housing and the Vancouver Affordable Housing Endowment Fund (VAHEF)

• Affordability: Create and maintain homes that are affordable to a diversity of Vancouver residents earning lower incomes and for those living in poverty or at risk of homelessness.
• Growth: Invest in new affordable housing in line with the demand.
• Health and safety: Manage the portfolio of affordable housing assets through appropriate operation, maintenance, renewal, development, and redevelopment to ensure safe and healthy homes.
• Community and security: Provide long-term homes that support residents’ participation in the community and increase their sense of social inclusion and security.
• Financial sustainability: Maintain the financial sustainability of the endowment to continually contribute to meeting housing needs.

Our non-market housing development and operations team manages the VAHEF portfolio. Their work includes:

Acquisition and development

• Acquiring new sites to develop non-market housing in Vancouver
• Readying undeveloped and under-utilized sites owned by the City for the construction of new affordable housing (carrying on the work completed by the Vancouver Affordable Housing Agency (VAHA))

Partnerships

• Forming partnerships with non-profit housing societies, senior government, and the private sector to finance, build, operate, and maintain non-market housing on sites ready for construction
• Selecting housing operators for all developer-built housing buildings, also referred to as “turn-key” buildings, where social housing is built by private developers and ownership is transferred to the City as an in-kind Community Amenity Contribution (CAC)

Asset management and operations

• Managing and monitoring new and existing contractual agreements with non-profit housing society and co-op housing partners delivering housing on City sites
• Maintaining City-owned buildings to provide safe and affordable housing
• Managing tenancies in housing buildings owned by the City that are not leased to a non-profit housing society or co-op

Capital grants

• Providing capital grants to non-profits developing housing on their own land through our Community Housing Incentive Program (CHIP)

• Increasing the City’s capital investment in non-market housing
• Enabling new permanent supportive housing
• Creating over 600 homes in North East False Creek
• Rapidly delivering housing for low income residents External website, opens in new tab
• Providing significant grants to non-profit societies to construct new social housing
• New framework to guide renewal of expiring leases with housing co-operatives on City sites
• City opens redeveloped Roddan Lodge and Evelyn Saller Centre