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     Dragonfly Commons Housing Society has been working for the past eight years to produce 30 individually-owned units of affordable workforce housing.  During that time, we have experienced many highs and lows and unparalleled community support.  

     Our timing for this project was not optimal, as it coincided with the North Salt Spring Waterworks (NSSW) moratorium on new construction, as well as with the provincial government’s new water legislation, The Water Sustainability Act of 2016.  Even though both of these factors significantly complicated the process, we are proud of the fact that after years of perserverance, we were able to license the two artesian wells that we drilled on site, easily sufficient for the 30 homes.  We were unable to complete the final step which required us to partner with one of the two entities on the island that have a water utility equivalency.  We first attempted to partner with NSSW which led to two years of frustration.  Three years ago, with the encouragement of Gary Holman, we pivoted to partner with the CRD.  This initially looked very promising but due to a number of factors including staff turnover, Covid but primarily due to a tragic disconnect between our elected representative’s enthusiasm for the project and inability to direct local staff, has caused numerous delays over the past three years, which continue to this day.  It is sad that we have little or no local control over CRD senior staff on this island and have to rely on people in Victoria who are well-intentioned but do not have our best interests top of mind.  

     Additionally, during the eight years that we have worked on this project we have seen the cost of construction skyrocket to the point where it is more than double what it was at the time we started.  As a result of the significant increase in costs, what started off as a project targeting low income earners had mutated into a project that would only be accessible to medium income earners which was not what incented us to initiate this project.  

     The frustrations that we have experienced over the years have made us want to quit on a number of occasions, but we have perservered and have made every effort to make this work, in large part due to the incredible support of our board, elected representatives, and numerous members of the community.  We would like to especially thank our board members Kisae Petersen, Robin Williams, Ron Cooke and Rhonan Heitzmann.  

     Sadly, we do not feel that we are close to completing this project and no longer have the enthusiasm and energy necessary to continue.  It is our intention over the next few months to wind down the Society and to sell the property.  If anyone feels they have the means and interest to pursue this project we would be happy to discuss it with you to see if there is a fit, in which case we will provide whatever assistance we can.    

Fernando and Tammy Dos Santos

ASK Salt Spring explores housing with the team from Dragonfly Commons not-for-profit housing project

Sixteen joined this ASK Salt Spring gathering for fascinating discussion of Workforce Housing led by special guests Tami and Fernando dos Santos and Rhonan Heitzmann. After our Territorial Acknowledgement, they began by speaking about their challenges and successes addressing Salt Spring’s dearth of worker housing.

Fernando and Tami have established the not-for-profit Dragonfly Commons to provide home ownership for 30 families. On their ten acres, they will build 30 small homes, approximately 400 square feet for a one bedroom, 600 square feet for a two bedroom, and 800 square feet for a three bedroom, with selling prices estimated at between $300,000 – $500,000.

Begun years ago, it had been the dos Santos’ hope to build less expensive homes that could be purchased by those with an income of $20-30 an hour; now, those qualifying to purchase homes at Dragonfly Commons will need an income (combined if there are two working adults) of a daunting $60-100 an hour. Sadly, this home ownership option once envisioned for our service workers will now likely only be affordable for the middle managers in our workforce. Despite these increasing prices, Dragonfly Commons will still offer home ownership for 30 families at a cost far below the market.

Rhonan, chair of the Islands Trust Housing Task Force, grew up on Salt Spring and fulfilled a dream by returning to raise his family here. He was soon clear that housing for a middle income family was almost impossible to acquire. Lucky and skilled, he was able to buy and renovate a 1965 small home (that should actually have been demolished) to create a home for his family. His recognition that few have his building skills nor the money to purchase even a decrepit home has spurred him to spend an enormous amount of time seeking housing solutions for Salt Spring while also managing his own business.

He began by offering us some definitions: We learned that most mistakenly equate affordable housing with subsidized housing, accommodations for those with the lowest incomes. Actually, affordable housing is a sliding scale, defined by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) as housing that requires 30% or less of a family unit’s gross household income.

Using this official definition, housing for a family earning $200,000 a year will be significantly different from housing for a family earning $20,000 a year. Despite this wide disparity, both are still categorized as affordable housing. Clearly, affordable housing includes a very wide spectrum of our housing needs on Salt Spring.

Traditionally, families earning moderate and higher incomes were able to purchase housing. Today, that option only rarely exists on Salt Spring. With almost no homes to purchase with an income under $200,000 and rentals that are also largely unavailable, too many of these families are leaving our community. And, according to Rhonan, without decisive action, this problem will only increase, soon leaving us without the workers we need to function as a community.

An encouraging solution to this complex problem, Dragonfly Commons has struggled. Only now – after years of challenges and many disappointments – the dos Santos’s are nearly ready to go to the Islands Trust for the subdivision zoning it needs to proceed.

Water has been Dragonfly Commons’s biggest challenge. Despite the North Salt Spring Waterworks District’s (NSSWD) moratorium on new hookups, Dragonfly Commons is blessed with plentiful well water. While good news, challenges have centered on the provincial requirement that all privately-owned water hookups of four or more homes must become its own water utility. Requiring a never-returned deposit of between $500,000 – $2 million, Fernando and Tami have spent many years seeking another entity to own their water system and avoid the daunting deposit.

Disappointingly, after years of negotiations, NSSWD has finally concluded that, given the many challenges it also faces, it cannot own the Dragonfly Commons water system. Recently, the dos Santos approached CRD to see if they would like to take ownership of their water system. Happily, it appears that CRD seems prepared to own and manage the system, charging, in Fernando’s opinion, a very reasonable annual rate. While still awaiting the formal confirmation of this agreement, Tami and Fernando are cautiously optimistic that a solution has finally been found. Dragonfly Commons will pay all the costs of building this system; CRD will own and manage it once completed. While a big win for Dragonfly Commons, CRD is also acquiring a cost-free, new water system that nets an annual fee while likely remaining largely maintenance-free for a number of years.

With conformation of this agreement with CRD, Dragonfly Commons will apply for a Common Strata zoning (not requiring Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI) approval) that it needs to proceed. This zoning will have a Housing Agreement that will prevent speculation by tying assessed value to cost of living.

Had MoTI approval been required for this subdivision, Dragonfly Commons would have likely been required to pay for improvements to Drake Road. Good news for Dragonfly Commons, as paying for these improvements would push costs for prospective buyers even further out of reach, Fernando is still concerned about the condition of Drake Road. He reminded us that this already-overused road would soon also accommodate 30 Dragonfly Commons families and 28 in the Drake Road Supportive Housing project. Fernando asked what would be done to improve Drake Road. With no answers yet, it was suggested that Fernando work with the CRD Transportation Commission to determine needed improvements and strategies to get them completed.

Rhonan spoke with passion about the need for an Islands Trust-wide Housing Authority to oversee Housing Agreements as well as proactive actions such as seeking funding and purchasing land for future housing projects. With Islands Trust support for such a Housing Authority, he is hopeful that the province will support its establishment. (Want to know more? Our MLA, Adam Olsen, will be ASK Salt Spring’s special guest next Friday, September 2, 11-1, in the United Church Meadow.)

Rhonan also suggested that a housing expert focused on local solutions was desperately-needed. Logically, this expert should support the Housing Council to move initiatives forward. We learned that the members of this Housing Council are our local can-do housing experts. Unfortunately, so consumed with completing underway housing projects, none of these professionals have the time to focus on other initiatives, often not even having the time to attend meetings. Agreement among these ASK Salt Spring participants was that the Housing Council should be given the money needed to hire an expert to focus on pursuing local housing opportunities. While the list of housing successes that could be achieved by this expert was long, among the items high on this list were:

Development of a support system for renters and landlords so that more Salt Springers would be comfortable renting;
Establishment of a Land Bank with a reserve of donated funding ready to purchase appropriate affordable housing properties as soon as they appear;
Proactive advocacy for the establishment of a Housing Authority;
Strategic identification and submittal of housing grant applications;
Collaboration with partners to streamline regulations that interfere with low-impact housing , such as potable water catchment;
Development of effective partnerships with funding entities, such as CRD Housing;
Advocacy for inclusion in the Speculation and Vacancy Tax;
And, the list goes on. . . .

Rhonan and Fernando agreed that there are many amazing conversations concerning housing on Salt Spring. They have hope for the Islands Trust housing conversations, believing that the protection of our unique islands area may require more authority for the Islands Trust. They support the request for a provincial review of the almost half century-old Islands Trust Act. They hope that the province will soon recognize that protecting our islands – while also maintaining a healthy community balance – requires both provincial funding and action.

As 1:00 approached, our guests were asked for their top two suggestions to begin addressing our serious housing challenges.
They agreed that communications among all levels of government – both staff and elected decision-makers – was essential. They were pleased to learn that Electoral Director Gary Holman has already convened such an interagency working group and, if elected, is committed to holding regular meetings of this group. They also agreed that the Housing Council needs the funding for a full-time housing expert to identify opportunities, seek funding, and partner to implement them.

Our time together too-soon over, some helped pack up chairs while the most eager stayed to continue to seek solutions. We all thanked Tami, Fernando, and Rhonan for leading such a fascinating conversation, sharing their vision for a housing-rich community, and working so very hard to turn these visions into reality. (Thank you, Tami, Fernando, and Rhonan!)

This article was posted August 29, 2022 by ASK Salt Spring on saltspringexchange.com

There was an article in the August 11, 2021 Driftwood newspaper entitled “Dragonfly project jumps hoops”. Here is the link to the online article: https://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/news/dragonfly-commons-optimistic-about-progress/

After first reading, the rezoning bylaw gets referred out to many different agencies for their review. We were on the agenda of the AAPC (Agricultural Advisory Planning Commission) online meeting on August 12, 2021. After some clarification from Geordie Gordon, the Trust planner for Dragonfly, the AAPC board voted unanimously in favour of the Dragonfly rezoning application. Next up will the APC (Advisory Planning Commission) on September 16, 2021.

We are excited to announce that Dragonfly Commons, after a long period of hibernation, is finally starting to make significant progress on our affordable housing project.  It has been a dispiritingly slow couple of years but things have really started to happen, as you will see from the contents of this update.  

After having been in FLNRORD limbo/hell for many years…for those of you who do not know, that is Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.  And yes, they are as slow as their name is long.  They have finally granted us a Water Licence to use the water from the two high-yield wells on our property for our project.

However, and there is always a “however” in the affordable housing world, a Water Licence only constitutes part of the solution to developing the water system.  The other part involves becoming a Private Water Utility which is a very onerous and expensive process, beyond the means of affordable housing projects.  

Luckily North Salt Spring Waterworks District, NSSWD, has stepped up to the plate and as a result we have a way forward.  By partnering with NSSWD,  we can avoid having to become a Private Water Utility.  Unfortunately in order for NSSWD to own our water system, they need to update their protocols and bylaws, and there is a significant cost for them to do so and Dragonfly needs to bear this cost.  

Fortunately we have a potential solution to that problem as well.  We are  applying for a CMHC grant program entitled “CMHC Housing Supply Challenge” with NSSWD as a very supportive sub-applicant. The first stage of the grant will award up to $75,000 to 30 applicants from across the country. These funds are to be used over a 6-month period for pre-development costs and will pay for NSSWD to develop their bylaws and protocols so as to be able to own Dragonfly’s water system. In addition, the 30 successful applicants will have access to a pool of 38 million dollars to be used over a two-year period for development costs. We will find out sometime in October whether we are successful with our grant application.  This grant is a potential game-changer for Dragonfly Commons, NSSWD and affordable housing on the island.  

Having our Water Licence has also meant that we were in a position to enter  into discussions with the Islands Trust and the planning department to find the best possible way to proceed with our rezoning application.  It was agreed that changing our application from a bare-land strata to a “building strata” would streamline and expedite matters by allowing the decision-making process to remain local in the hands of our very supportive Local Trust Committee instead of the very indifferent MOTI, Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.

We are pleased to announce that this newly-revised rezoning bylaw passed First Reading with flying colours, on July 27th at the LTC meeting. This is a big step and provides momentum to continue our work on this project. We would like to thank our planners Geordie Gordon and Stefan Cermak for their work and Trustees Laura Patrick and Peter Grove for their ongoing enthusiastic support, it means a lot to us.  The project will now be referred out to various agencies and First Nations groups.

One final piece of exciting news is that we are in the news and also are the news.  On July 3rd, 2021, Capital Daily, an innovative and increasingly popular online news site, published an extensive exposé about the affordable housing crisis on Salt Spring, detailing how the inability of housing projects to set up water systems is the primary barrier to affordable housing on the island. Dragonfly Commons efforts to resolve this issue are prominently featured in the article, as are our board members Kisae Petersen and her work with IWAV’s Croftonbrook project as well as Rhonan’s Heitzmann’s efforts to alleviate the housing crisis on the island working with the advocacy group Salt Spring Solutions.  

https://www.capitaldaily.ca/news/salt-spring-islands-duelling-crises

In conclusion, we want to thank our dedicated Board of Directors for their hard work and never say die attitude.  We appreciate your positive attitude and enthusiasm.  Shout out to Kisae Petersen, Robin Williams, Ron Cooke and Rhonan Heitzmann.

Tami and Fernando Dos Santos

p.s. if you know of anyone who would like to be added to this email list, please let us know at dragonflycommons at gmail dot com

On July 3rd, 2021, Capital Daily, a Victoria-based online publication published an extensive exposé about the affordable housing crisis on Salt Spring, detailing how the inability of housing projects to set up water systems is the primary barrier to affordable housing on the island. Dragonfly Commons efforts to resolve this issue are prominently featured in the article, as are our board members Kisae Petersen and her work with IWAV’s Croftonbrook project as well as Rhonan’s Heitzmann’s efforts to alleviate the housing crisis on the island. https://www.capitaldaily.ca/news/salt-spring-islands-duelling-crises

We have further exciting news that, in addition to finally getting our water licence, we have a possible way forward to develop our water system by partnering with NSSWD, North Salt Spring Water District. Unfortunately there is a significant cost to doing so, but we have a potential solution to that problem by applying for a CMHC grant program entitled
“CMHC Housing Supply Challenge” with NSSWD as a very supportive sub-applicant. The first stage of the grant will award up to $75,000 to 30 applicants from across the country. These funds are to be used over a 6-month period for pre-development costs and will assist NSSWD to develop their bylaws and protocols so as to be able to own Dragonfly’s water system. In addition, the 30 successful applicants will have access to a pool of 38 million dollars to be used over a two-year period for development costs. We will find out sometime in October whether we are successful with our grant application and, if so, we are hoping to move our project forward quite quickly after that.

We are pleased to announce that the Local Trust Committee passed the First Reading of our newly-revised rezoning bylaw July 27th at the LTC meeting. This is a big step and provides momentum to continue our work on building this project. We would like to thank our planner Geordie Gordon for his work and the trustees Laura Patrick and Peter Grove for their ongoing support and interest. The project will now be referred out to various agencies and First Nations groups to have a look at our rezoning request. This change in bylaw is important because it streamlines our rezoning process – instead of moving forward as a bare-land strata, we will now be moving forward as a “building strata”. In addition to expediting matters, this allows for the decision-making process to remain local in the hands of the Local Trust Committee instead of MOTI, Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.

Upon further examination and numerous discussion with BC Housing and other government agencies it has become abundantly clear that it is not economically feasible for us to build an affordable rental project. This is partly due to the insufficient funding provided by BC Housing and the rising cost of construction. This is a problem that is being reflected province-wide and in fact nation-wide. The BC government proposed to build 40,000 new homes and has in fact has only been able to deliver a few thousand of that number. As a result, we have decided to go back to affordable home ownership, even though that is going to be difficult, at least it appears possible. We are working hard on overcoming the barriers – of which being able to provide water to the project is the main one.

As of April, 2021, the Provincial department FLNRO, Forests, Lands and Natural Resources, granted Dragonfly Commons a Groundwater License for the use of our well-water for 30 homes. After an exhaustive amount of research and water studies by FLNRO and two hydrogeologists, it was determined that the amount of water needed is amply supplied by our two wells, and, at that usage, there would be no impact on the neighbouring wells, nor on the aquifer. We had to stop this housing project because the Water Licensing process took four years, rather than the two year time-frame that we had anticipated. These are the types of delays and complications that make affordable housing so difficult to accomplish.