Mel Lehan fondly recalls a stunt he and other housing activists pulled off in Victoria last fall. Dressed as pirates, they arrived at the waterfront in canoes and pretended to storm the office of the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation. Their objective: seize the $250-million Housing Endowment Fund held by the investment agency on behalf of the B.C. Liberal government.

The raid was merely symbolic, and the buccaneers only wanted to drive home a message. “It was quite fun, but the point we’re trying to make is there’s $250 million,” Lehan told the Georgia Straight. “For heaven’s sake, [let’s] start using it to build some housing.”

Lehan noted that $250 million would go a long way as seed money in constructing housing units for the growing homeless population in the province.

The Housing Endowment Fund was created as part of the 2007 provincial budget rolled out by Finance Minister Carole Taylor. As it’s an endowment, only its annual investment income, estimated at $10 million, can be used to fund projects “that address housing needs not adequately served through existing housing programs”, according to the British Columbia Housing Management Commission (B.C. Housing), which administers the fund’s proceeds. On its Web site (www.bchousing.org/), B.C. Housing notes that the fund is meant to “encourage new ideas and support innovative housing solutions for British Columbians most in need”.

So far, the fund has financed three projects. One was for eight housing units for youth in Victoria, worth $480,000. Another was to assist in the conversion of an apartment building to five co-op units for low-income families and individuals, also in Victoria, for $70,000. The largest allocation made was for $2 million, to put up eight rooms to serve as short-term housing for burn survivors and their families travelling to Vancouver for treatment and care.

However, NDP housing critic David Chudnovsky said he cannot see how the two
Victoria-based projects were evaluated for their “innovative” approach to housing. “They have funded other kinds of projects that are not dissimilar from the first two on the list from the [regular] housing budget,” Chudnovsky told the Straight.

Worse, according to Chudnovsky, the $2-million funding for short-term housing for burn victims given to the British Columbia Professional Firefighters’ Burn Fund doesn’t even appear to be related to the endowment fund’s purpose.

“It’s probably a good thing to fund a burn unit, but why in the world would it come from the housing innovation fund?” Chudnovsky said. “I have no explanation for it. If the government wants to contribute to a burn unit, that’s a great idea, but they should take the money out of the health budget.”

B.C. Housing spokesperson Sam Rainboth explained to the Straight that the three projects actually meet the criteria set for grants from the endowment fund. According to Rainboth—who returned the Straight’s call four days after the initial query was presented to B.C. Housing on February 8—the youth-housing project is coupled with job training, thus making it unique. He added that renovation for co-op housing is not included in programs that receive funding from the provincial government. With respect to the burn victims’ housing project, he said that this is the only one of its kind in North America.

However, Chudnovsky is not convinced. “I want to understand better how those projects are innovative,” he said. He also pointed out that it isn’t exactly clear how project proponents can access the fund and how their proposals will be screened. “It makes one wonder whether this is being treated as a slush fund,” he said. “I think it’s a story about transparency and accountability. This kind of endowment doesn’t have the same rules
for transparency.”

Chudnovsky has another problem with the fund. “It seems to me that what we need is not innovation,” he said. “What we need is housing. [The] $250 million could buy a lot of housing in the context of the enormous housing crisis in British Columbia.”