Tuesday, April 20, 2010 Vancouver slashes Olympic Village social housingArticle from CBC News about the Olympic Social Housing ...
The City of Vancouver is slashing the number of social housing units in the Olympic Village in order to raise more cash from the troubled project, Mayor Gregor Robertson is expected announce Tuesday afternoon.
The $1 billion dollar luxury condominium complex on the south shore of False Creek was supposed to include 252 social housing units.
But a city staff report has recommended that the number be cut in half because of the huge cost overruns for the social housing component of the development, CBC News has learned. The original budget for the social housing units was $64 million dollars, but the construction ended up costing $110 million.
A staff reports says selling the units doesn't make sense, because the city would have to spend millions to upgrade them to market standards, and the development already contains hundreds of units that are being sold to the public.
So instead of selling them off, the other 126 units will be rented out at market rates, with preference being given to essential service workers, such as police and fire crews who work in the city, and want to continue living close to downtown.
The city took over the entire project after its New York-based financiers pulled out during the financial crisis of 2008.
City staff are cautiously optimistic they will break even on the complete project once the units are sold and rented, and taxpayers won't be on the hook for any losses. Commentsblog comments powered by Disqus |
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