Two organizations running subsidized affordable housing in Castlegar have received energy retrofit grants from the Columbia Basin Trust.
The trust announced last Wednesday that 25 buildings in the Columbia Basin — with over 500 affordable housing units — were awarded Energy Retrofit Program grants to help improve the sustainability and energy efficiency of the units. Those 25 buildings are represented by 17 regional non-profit societies, including Castlegar & District Community Services Society (CDCSS) and the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) for the Kootenays.
The CDCSS received $22,400 to retrofit four buildings with six housing units in Blueberry.
Kristein Johnson, executive director for CDCSS, explains that the retrofits will include upgrading insulation in the ceilings and floors.
“As it stand right now, there’s nothing underneath it so obviously the floors get awfully cold,” she says.
The insulation upgrade will help reduce heating bills for tenants, and the retrofit will also include a furnace replacement for the mobile home that the CDCSS owns in Blueberry.
Johnson says that without help from the CBT, the upgrades would not have been possible.
“We would not have been able to afford to do this or certainly [not] the whole project,” she says.
The total cost of the project is approximately $26,000, with the retrofit grant covering about 86 per cent of the cost.
“I certainly am thrilled with CBT and the BC Non-Profit Housing Association,” says Johnson.
The CBT is working with the BC Non-Profit Housing Association and BC Housing to deliver the Energy Retrofit Program.
The CMHA for the Kootenays received over $90,000 to retrofit four buildings in Castlegar with a total of 86 housing units.
“There’s a number of different things in each of the four buildings, primarily hot water tanks is what we’ve applied for the grant for. We have a lot of aging stock, because these buildings are between 3o and and 40 years old,” says James Suffredine, administrator of housing services for the CMHA for the Kootenays.
The buildings being upgraded are Maranatha Court, Pine Ridge Court, Riverview Court and Rosewood Manor.
The furnaces in Pine Ridge Court are also being replaced.
“We’re putting in 14 new furnaces that are going to be sort of 96 or 95 per cent efficient ones,” says Suffredine.
The retrofits will not only help tenants save money on their utilities, but ensure the sustainability of the housing stock.
“There’s a lot to maintaining those types of things, so by upgrading them not only do we save the tenants money when they’re paying their bills, but it also breathes new life into some older stock that’s out there for subsidized housing,” says Suffredine.
The CBT will be doing a second grant intake in early 2018 and Suffredine says the CMHA for the Kootenays will likely apply for that grant intake as well.
“This is just the first year of the grants. We’re of course thinking, ‘Well, we’ll keep looking at what we can do to make things more energy efficient for people,'” he says.
