B.C. co-op tenants fear soaring costs if rent subsidies disappear

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BC’s coop housing organizations are becoming increasingly concerned as federal subsidies expire.

“There was no way I could afford a house here” — even back then and having owned a home Up-Island, she said. Now president of the Co-operative Housing Federation of B.C., she’s fearful of the coming expiration of federal government subsidies that give others — seniors, people with disabilities, single parents and new Canadians — the same chance. Shaw received subsidized rent for only a couple of years and now pays market rate, as do about two-thirds of the non-profit co-op’s residents. But people dependent on subsidies from the federal government could see their rent rise by hundreds of dollars a month, putting them at risk for homelessness, she told Saanich Council this week.

Read the article: B.C. co-op tenants fear soaring costs if rent subsidies disappear 

Source: Times Colonist