Rainbow Ridge All loans can now be repaid
Cortes Currents
English - February 16, 2021 21:41 - 3.82 MBNews cortes island discovery islands quadra food security energy indigenous nations Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents -Donations to the Rainbow Ridge affordable housing project, on Cortes Island, have reached the point that all loans can now be repaid.
A number of people loaned the project large sums of money, at rates as low as 0% interest.
Project coordinator Sandra Wood was not sure how much they have raised to date, but could confirm that by the end of 2020 the project had received the $450,000 needed to repay all outstanding loans.
“We have enough cash in hand to pay all of them back. There was never a mortgage on the Rainbow Ridge land. We bought the land outright with the money that local people had loaned us. So it wasn’t a mortgage, it was local loans combined with local cash that was donated, that enabled us to buy that property. So now we have no debt on the Rainbow Ridge property,” she said.
They can now proceed to erect up to twenty-two affordable housing units in Mansons Landing.
Wood said they still have money left over for construction, and on top of that we are still waiting for the BC Housing Grant and project funding to be approved.
“That’s what we are hoping to hear back, hopefully later this year,” said Wood.
She added, “Local Islanders are making this happen. They are using their personal savings and putting it towards community projects.”