The Cowichan Housing Association Financial Contribution Service (the CHAFC Service) is an annual financial contribution to the Cowichan Housing Association (CHA) by the Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD). It was established by "CVRD Bylaw No. 4201 - Cowichan Housing Association Annual Financial Contribution Service Establishment Bylaw, 2018," a bylaw to establish a service to provide an annual financial contribution to Cowichan Housing Association.

The purpose of the CHAFC is to provide program and services to affordable housing and homelessness prevention in the CVRD.

The citizens of the Cowichan region have identified affordable housing as a top priority. Local governments are increasingly playing a leading role in solving the housing crisis.

CHAFC enables the CHA to match non-profit housing ideas with suitable land, find developers to build the housing, and secure grants from senior levels of government to make the idea a reality. The CHA is accountable to the CVRD and the community through approved annual work plans, with requirements for annual reporting of results. For each housing initiative, the CHA issues a call for proposals, with an approval process that includes criteria to ensure regional priorities are met.

Maximum Annual Budget:

The annual cost to provide this service is a maximum of  $765,000 to be raised by property value tax and other revenues permitted under the Local Government Act or any other Act.

Residential Contribution:

$3.87/$100,000 assessed value (For a home valued at $500,000, the annual cost would be $19.35)

This financial contribution service is generally allocated as follows:

• $500,000 (65%) would be committed directly to seed funding for getting bricks and mortar projects underway, and will be known as the Housing Trust Fund (HTF). The target users of these projects would be low to moderate income households including families with children, lone parent families, singles and seniors.
• $138,000 (18%) would be dedicated to ensuring housing projects succeed through comprehensive project assessments, up-to-date data collected to justify need and demand, developing new partnerships and preventing housing loss for our most vulnerable residents.
• $127,000 (17%) would be used for overhead costs required to administer the service, including CVRD administration costs.

For more information on the Cowichan Housing Association see:  http://cowichanhousing.com/