BY MIKE YOUDS
Special to the News
Proponents of a micro housing model are counting on the community to get behind a development plan they consider vital to address high levels of poverty and homelessness in Port Alberni.
Bear Lind and Bob Brown are proposing a specific location — the former Salvation Army building at Fifth and Redford — to achieve the goals of their SunRay Village Paradigm Foundation, a registered non-profit society.
They have a comprehensive concept, a letter of support from city council and a GoFundMe campaign set up at www.gofundme.com/no-income-low-income-homeownership. What they lack so far is broader community backing, specifically $4.5 million in start-up funding. Three months after the fundraising campaign began, only one donor has responded.
Currently for sale by the Coulson Group for $1.2 million, the former Redford elementary school is a cluster of buildings on a hectare-sized parcel that checks all the boxes for SunRay.
“This has got everything we need,” Lind said. “Now it’s just getting the community involved.”
He believes if people look closely at the project they will see the merits and support it.
“We’re looking for more people who would be interested in developing this.”
Their primary focus is reducing poverty. According to the last census, 23 percent of Port Alberni residents live on low incomes, considered the highest low-income level of any municipality in the province.
Working on the premise that home ownership is an essential foundation for escaping poverty, they propose a comprehensive approach that incorporates micro housing, life skills and job training, and social enterprise in the form of non-timber forest products (NTFP) and local agriculture. All of these could be accommodated on the Redford Street property, they said.
They describe the concept as creating affordable community housing rather than subsidized housing. Similar micro housing projects have been developed elsewhere but the idea hasn’t yet caught on in B.C., Lind noted.
“Obviously, community programs need to be community driven. We’re helping people who want to change.”
While the plan requires capital funding to proceed, Brown thinks the overall project could become self-sustaining by developing a largely untapped market for 150 natural products harvestable from surrounding forests.
“It’s something that should have been done 20 years ago as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
They’ve identified several available properties around town, but feel the former school is the most central and viable. The former school playfield is large enough to accommodate 25 micro housing units, housing Lind said would be designed for all ages. Their start-up plan also envisions 80 micro houses to be located off site.
In April, city council sent a letter of support for the four community development programs proposed by Sunray — micro housing, farmworkers (food, farm and housing), community support centres and “job harmony” programs in non-timber forest products.
Mayor Mike Ruttan said the letter represents council’s support in principle for those objectives.
“There’s certainly a need for what they’re talking about,” he said. “They’ve got a long way to go to get from concept to reality.”
