Leaders of local non-profits providing affordable housing say they expect a new property tax exemption to result in significant benefits for their organizations.
“It just gives us that much more of a boost up to be able to buy more affordable units,” said Carol Sloan, operations manager for the St. Albert Housing Society, which owns 27 units of affordable rental housing in North Ridge. “That's our whole goal, our whole reason for being.”
The exemption will come into effect through provincial legislation next year.
According to a new report to council by city assessor Stephen Bannerman, just three organizations would be affected by the exemption if it were to come into effect immediately: the Housing Society and both of St. Albert's housing co-ops. Bannerman's report was in response to Coun. Natalie Joly asking for an estimated financial impact to the city if such an exemption was to come into effect.
READ MORE: Co-op model offers housing affordability in St. Albert
Combined, Bannerman wrote, the three organizations are paying just over $237,000 in property taxes this year, which includes city-set property taxes as well as the education requisition and the Homeland Housing requisition, with the Heritage Hills Housing Co-op paying the most ($100,895) for its 50 units in Heritage Lakes.
The Liberton Terrace Housing Co-operative, with its 43 units on McKenney Avenue will pay the second most of the three, as they were assessed $80,324 this year.
The Housing Society has the lowest property tax bill of the three groups at $56,097.
Sloan said a $56,000 tax break would not mean the Society could buy more units to add to their portfolio immediately, but it would certainly be in the cards.
“As a society, we wouldn't make a quick decision because we just haven't got the funds to make a quick decision,” she said. “It would have to be well thought out, but it does give us more opportunity to look at getting more units, especially in the building we're in.”
“That building, it's designated affordable by the government, but ... that was a 20-year commitment, and [in 2033] that's going to be up, and anybody else who has ownership in the building might change it to market [rates], so it's important that we try to get more units in that building to keep it sustainable that way with affordable rentals.”
Exempting organizations like the Housing Society from paying property taxes is just one “step forward,” Sloan said, adding the next step should be greater funding.
“What we want to offer is critical for the community,” she said. “I don't think everybody sees it that way, because they don't see the need as much as I do.”
“Things are not getting easy easier for anybody out there.”
Chantelle Kiebiech, the president of the Liberton Terrace Housing Co-op, said being exempted from property taxes will allow the co-op to keep costs low, and with some other resources, possibly expand.
“Right now we're going through a lot of renovations on our property, and the construction costs have gone up, like, exponentially, so we could be putting that forth to improve our properties and we could [avoid] having to [consider] increasing our housing charges or rent,” Kiebiech said. “In a broader future, if we have the ability to expand our co-op and make more units, we would love to do that.”
“There is, hopefully, federal money to do that as well, but if we were able to work with the city to acquire any extra land at a reduced price to get land, that would be a great resource for us to expand our co-op.”
Earlier this month the federal government announced a new $1.5 billion program to provide loans and grants toward building and growing housing co-ops across the country. A housing co-op is a member- or resident-owned organization where co-op members collectively own their units and elect a board of directors to manage the property.
“This is the largest investment to build new co-op housing in the last 30 years,” the government's news release reads. “The program will build thousands of new co-op homes by 2028.”
Kiebiech said the Liberton Terrace Co-op wouldn't necessarily oppose a new location if it were to expand, but the preference would be to expand its current location.
“We would love to expand,” she said. “If we can add more housing units, if we had support and help especially from the city to do that, that would be amazing.”
Bannerman's report also says Homeland Housing's 22 St. Thomas Street project would likely qualify for exemption as well, but wasn't included in his list “until further operational and property details are available.” Council recently voted to provide $2.85 million toward capital costs for that project.
“A property tax grant or exemption for non-profit housing would also be applicable to future developments that have established a partnership with other non-profit housing providers in alignment with considered property tax exemption criteria,” Bannerman wrote.
