84 BCBusiness OctOber 2016
That left about 3,000 units of market
housing. "At the end of the day, the
developer didn't have to unilaterally
pay for and own the land upfront, but
he got to bene"t from the proceeds,"
says Guslits, who is an architect by
trade. "And because
TCHC was willing
to take some risk, [TCHC]
got 40 to 60
per cent of pro"ts on market housing,
depending on the phase. They used that
pro"t to cross-subsidize the building of
their social housing. And the more
money made o‚ the market housing,
the more money
TCHC made to assist
in rebuilding their promised subsi-
dized housing."
Occupancy of the new units started
in May 2009. They've "nished three
of the "ve phases, with completion
on track for summer 2020 or 2021,
according to Guslits. The last of the
units will be the priciest since they've
increased in value now that the loca-
tion is desirable. "What doesn't work
is to take poor people and put them
on undesirable land," he says. "You
don't give up the possibility that you
have housing for low-income people
in the heart of an upscale community.
You will never get that back again.
So hang onto it, and develop it in a
creative fashion."
He concedes that Vancouver has a
di‚erent set of problems from most cit-
ies, due to its world-class land values.
"That being said, I guess the decision
the government has to make is: Is it
going to use its assets, like land, to be
a catalyst for revenues—or is it going to
use it as a catalyst for change?"
■
"what doesn't work is to
take poor people and put
them on undesirable land.
You don't give up the pos-
sibility that you have housing
for low-income people in the
heart of an upscale commu-
nity. You will never get that
back again"
– Mark Guslits, former development officer,
Toronto Community Housing Corporation
