Building a Stronger Community Through Housing

We have recently received notice from the Real Estate Foundation of BC that we were awarded a grant of $50,000 to conduct an aquifer health assessment for Cortes. Through this project, we will be bringing on consultants that have done similar studies for rural island communities. We aim to map the aquifers on Cortes and assess their recharge rates as well as how much water is being withdrawn from them. Through this project, we aim to understand areas of the Island where aquifers need to be recharged, or water conserving development prioritized in the years ahead. Please let us know if you’d be interested in joining a committee with CHS to guide this work.

The Cortes Housing Society has received a grant from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) for $93,000 to evaluate the feasibility of building a renewable energy heating and cooling system for the Rainbow Ridge housing project. In the next few months we will be exploring if a rural housing project like ours can be heated and cooled using a geoexchange system. We’ll be providing further updates in the months ahead.

In addition to providing rental housing, we have heard strong interest from Cortes residents to have access to land for affordable home ownership opportunities. To support access to land, we are exploring developing access to land on Rainbow Ridge lands for affordable long term leases so people can build their own homes, or have one built for them without having to spend exorbitant amounts on gaining access to land.