By Dale West
Anyone thinking that a change in plans to accommodate a less expensive road access coupled with Castlegar city council’s delay of third reading of necessary zoning changes until completion of a traffic study slowed the Kootenay Columbia Seniors Housing Cooperative in the quest to build affordable seniors housing at Grandview Heights, think again. With third reading now given, site grading starts soon (perhaps this week). Once engineered drawings before city staff are approved, work will start on water, sewer and roads. “There is nothing holding us back but normal procedure,” said Elmer Verigin, project manager. Even during the “slowdown,” the project moved forward. Interest was expressed in two more of the 50 residential lots available, the sale of which will help finance infrastructure work. Two more life leases came aboard. Co-op membership climbed to 147 — a far cry from the original 18 founding members.
These trailblazers have attracted like-minded seniors from beyond Castlegar and area, from Creston, Vancouver, Surrey, Fort Langley, Victoria, Nanaimo, even Saskatchewan. With membership strong, with work posed to start on phase one (59 life leases made up of 23 bungalows, 30 duplexes and six townhouses), the co-op is focusing ahead on the Grandview Heights centrepiece: a 120-unit care complex.
“The care complex will allow seniors to age in place, move from one level of care to the next, from their residence into the care facility,” said Margaret Nickle, a co-op director Never having to leave “home” and the support of their extended family of friends and neighbours will benefit seniors. Having seniors living in one place will also benefit the healthcare system. Home support workers who spend hours on the road travelling between clients will be able do their work more efficiently in one place. Yet another Grand Heights care complex benefit to the health system, pointed out Nickle, “We will be saving the taxpayers money by building it.” All Grandview Heights residential units will be marketed on a prepaid life lease basis — different than the ordinary life lease in that it won’t expire at death. “It is the same as home ownership,” explained co-op treasurer Dorothy Dergousoff. “Members will be getting a registered prepaid life lease, registered on the home and the property.” This ongoing investment in the co-op should alleviate the fear and apprehension of many seniors who will be selling their present homes, homes that often represent their life savings. “They will still have something to leave for their families,” said Dergousoff. At the passing of life lease holder, units will be sold at market value. Two thirds of any increase over the original purchase price goes to the member’s estate, one third goes to the co-op. The next member on the waiting list will get first option to buy an available unit. With the funds that it makes and saves from its portion of the appreciated value, the co-op will eventually be in a position to buy units to be turned into rental units.
Looking down the road to help fellow seniors who can’t afford to buy a life lease, the co-op believes that an offshoot of their project will help young families today. “When these 59 members move up to their new housing there will be affordable, quality housing at lower cost for people just starting out,” said co-op member Bob Dickson. From the time in 2005 when a group of concerned individuals gathered to discuss concerns of their senior years, the co-op has come along way. They’ve pick up pointers where they could from other groups, from Kamloops to Edmonton.
“We’re learning as we go along,” said Irene Evanoff, co-op president. “It hasn’t been done before so we can’t follow anyone.” Wanting to be transparent and share what they have learned, the co-op maintains a website, soon to be “wiki,” to enable not only the co-op to post meeting minutes and sunder other information, but for members to post their own information. With residential occupancy set for spring 2008, much still needs to be done. Yet driven by “grey power,” much has already been accomplished on the road to creating a seniors’ “mecca” in the Kootenays. “We’re not sitting around figuring out what we’re going to do when we get old,” said Evanoff. “Who’s getting old?” said member Peter Stoopnikoff “We’re not asking anybody to look after us,” offered Nickle. “We can look after ourselves.”