A 1978 apartment building in Richmond City Centre has been acquired by Tikva Housing, a non-profit organization, as an affordable rental building.
The 45-unit building, on Westminster Highway just west of Garden City Road, was bought using $5 million from the B.C. Rental Protection Fund and a $1.2 million grant from the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation.
Tikva Housing operates regionally, with housing in Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond, and its executive director Anat Gogo said they currently have a waitlist of about 450, which represents about 750 people needing housing.
When asked if Richmond residents will be moving into the building, she said the non-profit would like to see that as a priority.
“If there’s an opportunity to house individuals who are already residing in Richmond, we will likely be prioritizing them as we like to preserve community,” Gogo said at the announcement on Monday.
The building is currently largely occupied, and the current renters will be staying in their units.
Of the $5 million from the B.C. Rental Protection Fund, $1.2 million is earmarked for renovations of the building.
Rents for the one- and two-bedroom apartments are currently between $1,500 and $1,600 a month and will remain below local market rates, according to the non-profit.
Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon, who attended the event, said the now-renamed Ronald S. Roadburg Residences has “strong bones,” which makes it a good fit to continue housing people.
Kahlon outlined four pillars of the province’s housing strategy – addressing speculation, cutting red tape, investing in affordable housing and preserving existing affordable housing – and he said the Tikva Housing acquisition falls under the last one.
“Those all four buckets have a lot of strategy pieces underneath them, and that’s what we’re celebrating today,” Kahlon told the Richmond News. “It’s one thing to increase housing supply, but if you’re losing housing at the same time, (it’s) one step forward, one step back.”
Tikva Housing is a Jewish housing non-profit that operates 213 units in Burnaby, Richmond and Vancouver. It is guided by the principle of "tikkun olam," a "commitment to repairing the world."
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