Catalyst Community Developments Society
Saint Andrew’s United Church in Port Moody was showing its age. The congregation wanted their place of worship to do more to serve the wider community. They saw a growing number of people in the Tri-Cities becoming unhoused, and felt an urgent need to create more affordable housing. They had clear goals, but no money or development experience.
“What they had was a piece of property that had a parking lot on it and a big old leaky church. And the big old leaky church was lovely, but it was underutilized, and so was the parking lot.”
Reverend Jennifer Swanson
Meanwhile two local organizations, Kinsight and SHARE Family and Community Services, were trying to find a space where children with developmental delays and disabilities could access support and services. “We’d been working on the concept for 20 years,” says Kinsight CEO Christine Scott. “But we couldn’t find anything that met our needs.” Kinsight works with more than 2,000 families in the Tri-Cities area to foster inclusion and belonging for children with special needs.
Both groups – the church and the children’s support workers – approached the Vancity Affordable Community Housing Program to explore their options for developing affordable housing, and received grant funding to get started. Through Vancity they were introduced to Catalyst Community Development, a nonprofit affordable housing developer. All the partners agreed to work together, and soon a shared vision took shape.
The Springs would be a mixed-use social purpose real estate development combining 55 units of below-market rental housing, commercial and community space. The church would be part of the building, but double as a gathering place for children’s programming and other activities throughout the week. The offices would allow Kinsight and SHARE to move their operations under one roof. Everyone was excited.
“But to get it off the ground is a Herculean effort. It takes years sometimes of planning, whether it’s working with municipalities or financing to put the money in place and get everything lined up. And then of course it takes years to actually build the building.”
Michael Ross, VP of Property Operations at Catalyst
Early-stage costs like design, land closure and permitting are often 10 to 15 percent of a large housing project. These steps are essential to unlock construction financing, including loans and government funding.
The Vancity Affordable Community Housing Program stepped in again, becoming one of the first investors in The Springs. That pre-construction equity loan became part of the ‘capital stack’ that helped the project officially acquire the land from the United Church, secure municipal approvals and unlock the financing to start building, including funding from the City of Port Moody, BC Housing and CMHC.
With a longer payback period and higher tolerance for risk than most commercial lenders, Vancity Affordable Community Housing Program offers ‘bridge financing’ that takes a nonprofit housing project from a good idea to a real building that can transform people’s lives.
Once all the pieces were in place, the Catalyst team tore down the 1950s church and rebuilt it as The Springs, a vibrant community space that also houses the new Tri-Cities Children’s Centre. Open since 2022, The Springs brings together residents from all walks of life, families of children with developmental delays and disabilities – and the congregation of the renamed Inlet United Church.
“This building is so well used, which is a lot better than just a parking lot that sat empty a lot of the time,” says Reverend Jennifer Swanson. “It’s a place for community people to come and to gather and to meet each other and then to live, of course, in the building.” And the name? “The Springs – it speaks to me of life, and the bubbling forth of life.”
Five of the apartments are set aside as accessible, inclusive housing for families served by Kinsight.
“It is truly magical to see it come to life. And knowing that we had a part in that, that we were able to invest in this property, that the church was able to use their land and being supported by a nonprofit developer – it’s, again, magical.”
Christine Scott, Kinsight CEO
“I think The Springs is an example of how working together and collaborating can be more than the sum of its parts,” says Irene Gannitsos, Director of Strategic Investment at Vancity Community Foundation.
Since its inception the Vancity Affordable Community Housing Program has helped 63 different organizations build 70 community housing projects, creating more than 5,600 affordable and climate-ready homes for people across B.C. Now the hope is to scale up the program to help more projects get off the ground, faster.
Learn more about Catalyst Community Developments Society.