On March 1, 2024, Brightside Community Homes Foundation became the new owners of Casa Mia Apartments in Burnaby. The purchase of this purpose-built rental building with 56 affordable rental homes in the Edmonds Town Centre neighbourhood of Burnaby was made possible by the new Rental Protection Fund, funded by the provincial government and designed to safeguard existing affordability in rental buildings throughout the province. This purchase was one of the first approved through the Rental Protection Fund.
Brightside purchased Casa Mia with the express intention of ensuring the rental homes therein remain affordable for the long term, and represents Brightside’s first acquisition since 2013. Built in 1967, Casa Mia has unsubsidized rental rates that are well below median rents in Burnaby. Brightside’s purchase of the building will both maintain the ongoing affordability of the homes at Casa Mia, and prevented the building from being sold on the open market to a for-profit developer.
Why is it important to protect existing, older purpose-built rental buildings in Metro Vancouver? The Rental Protection Fund website notes that “British Columbia has lost 97,390 units that rented below $1,000 per month between 2016 and 2021. For every new affordable rental home that is built in B.C., three more are lost to investors, conversions, demolition and rent increases, preventing the Province from keeping pace with the demand for affordable housing supply.” This fund enables non-profit community housing providers like Brightside to purchase these affordable rental homes and keep them affordable for the communities they serve.
Brightside is one of Vancouver’s longest standing non-profit housing providers, owning and operating affordable rental homes for over 70 years. With decades of experience in property management, Brightside is well positioned to ensure Casa Mia will remain an affordable, secure, and well-maintained building for years to come.
As Brightside continues to work toward its goal of doubling the number of affordable homes it provides by 2030, the Rental protection fund provides one more tool for Brightside to continue this work. In combination with Brightside’s other independent redevelopment initiatives and the recent addition of Casa Mia to Brightside’s portfolio, Brightside will have added nearly 550 affordable homes to Metro Vancouver’s affordable housing stock by 2025.
For more information about the Rental Protection Fund program, visit https://rentalprotectionfund.ca/ . Read the Provincial Government press release here: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2023PREM0002-000023.