“To foster and facilitate the maintenance of an economically and socially diverse community through the creation of affordable, accessible, attainable housing for all.”

In 2005 about thirty people met to discuss the crisis in affordable housing on Bowen Island.The Bowen Community Housing Association was formed out of that early group who had gathered at the Gallery, and within a few months we hosted a 2-day “Affordable Housing for a Diverse Community” symposium. 125 people devoted an entire weekend to working on a game plan to address this critical issue. Mayor Bob Turner called it a “watershed moment in Bowen’s history”. A week later the BCHA received its official non-profit society status.

Out of that symposium’s fantastic community commitment to participation and creative thinking came a four-pronged “Next Steps” action plan to create more affordability on Bowen, and help preserve its cherished character and social diversity:

1. undertake a community affordable housing Needs Assessment
2. legalize secondary suites.
3. ensure a portion of the Surplus Lands is set aside for affordable housing
4. undertake a review of the OCP as pertains to affordable housing.

Since that time, the BCHA, its Affordable Housing Strategy committee, and the Affordable Housing Working Group (AHWG) of council which grew out of that BCHA committee has accomplished all of those “next steps” for the community.

In fact, we have gone further. Through the work of the BCHA, we have taken on a Bowen Island favourite community fundraiser (Run for the Ferry) whose proceeds this year go towards land acquisition for the purposes of building affordable units. BCHA membership fees go directly towards that effort.

Additionally, the AHWG, under the wise and informed direction of Elizabeth Ballantyne, and including two BCHA board members sit has developed an Affordable Housing Policy, including guidelines for the establishment of a Bowen Island Housing Corp, through whom things such as administering waitlists and overseeing covenants and affordable ownership housing agreements will be undertaken. Draft affordable ownership unit guidelines for qualification and waitlist processes, are already in the works. Draft Housing covenants to manage appropriate re-sale and rental processes and restrictions on affordable housing units are also part of that group’s work.

We have found that the largest percentage of people in need of affordable housing are young working families, so a plan for affordable ownership has been addressed first. The work and focus of the BCHA in the coming year is to address the next level of need as found in the Needs Assessment: social housing.We have recently welcomed on to our board a woman with years of professional experience areas specifically focused on social housing and co-op housing.

All of this work is done within a framework of deep love and respect for what Bowen is, and what it values, socially, environmentally and from a Bowen aesthetic perspective. The idea is to create a vibrant, attractive, recognizably ‘Bowen’ village core, that although more populated and developed, still feels, when all is said and done and its people are housed, like the island home people came here to live in.

There are many steps before the shovel goes in the ground, and the board of the BCHA, certainly like everyone else, hoped to see it sooner, but it is getting very close now. Have faith. Hold the vision… and it will unfold.

Support BCHA through its annual awareness and fund raiser www.runfortheferry.ca