The Regional District of Nanaimo will consider a request to help support a rent bank service intended to help combat homelessness in the area.
John Horn, executive director of Connective Support Society, and Azura Kines and Theresa MacDonald, B.C. Rent Bank case manager and case worker, respectively, made a presentation Oct. 11 at the RDN board meeting, requesting $10,000 and informing directors about the rent bank’s function to provide interest-free loans for people with housing-related payment issues.
B.C. Rent Bank, which receives funding from the Province if B.C., is essentially a “mother company,” which partners with the society to offer financial assistance, Horn told the News Bulletin. Maximum amounts of $1,500 are offered to individuals and $1,800 for families and there is a $500 limit for utilities. The bank can’t support people who are more than two months in arrears.
“It’s provincewide and it’s geared towards maintaining stable housing for low- and moderate-income people,” said Kines. “It does this through a rental loan and this can be used for paying rent or rental arrears. Utilities that can’t be paid, really high utility bills or alternatively damage deposit, pet deposit or first month’s rent.”
Horn said the loan capital fund is currently $116,000, with 78 per cent of that contributed by City of Nanaimo and 22 per cent from B.C. Rent Bank. In addition, B.C. Rent Bank provides 100 per cent for operating costs, which currently are at $65,780 for salaries and administrative costs, Horn said.
“As people pay us back, we replenish that [loan capital fund], but as you can imagine in our business, we’re not bankers, so we have a higher-risk-profile candidate that borrows money for us, so our repayment is probably lower than most banks get,” Horn told the board.
When asked about repayment rate, Kines said it varies.
“More recently, we’ve had about 80 per cent expected repayments coming in monthly,” she said. “It really depends, I’ve noticed, on time of year as well, so it can be closer to 60 per cent depending on the situation. We have had some write-offs of loans. Generally … the provincewide rent bank doesn’t expect really high repayment rates, as long as we can at least have some, that’s kind of what we’re looking for, especially with rents increasing.”
In addition, she said if people don’t pay off the loan, they will be disqualified from applying again.
The rent bank services the RDN as well as Mount Waddington, Clayquot and Strathcona regional districts and Horn said he will be approaching those boards with funding requests as well. He said the program is one way to support residents who might be facing eviction for any number of reasons.
“Our goal is to keep them housed, so they don’t add to the problem of homelessness in our community, but also for the rare real reason that it’s a great deal of stress that goes along with being evicted or losing a tenancy,” said Horn.
There are currently 100 loans outstanding in the RDN area, according to the B.C. Rent Bank.
The board unanimously approved a motion to include the funding request in the next set of budget deliberations.
For more information, visit https://bcrentbank.ca/.
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