Plans for affordable housing complex in Houston

The Dze L’Kant Friendship Center, through its housing company, is embarking on a project to build a housing complex containing approximately 35 subsidized housing units.

It would be built at 3553 11th St. on 1.25 acres on property now owned by the Houston District but leased to the Friendship Center for $1 a year for 60 years.

The lease gives Dze L’Kant the security it needs to support a grant application from the provincial agency BC Housing to fully develop a construction financing proposal.

News of the lease agreement was revealed behind closed doors by council at its May 21 meeting.

Building an affordable housing complex would help fill the shortage of desperately needed housing, Houston district consultants said.

Another closed-door item was also released at the same meeting, in which the district will lease part of the same 11th Street property to Dze L’Kant for a daycare for $1 per year for 20 years.

The Dze L’Kant Friendship Center child care project for Houston envisions building a facility suitable for a mix of care options ranging from day care for newborns and older, to before and after school care , preschool care and even 24-hour childcare at set times for parents who work outside of normal working hours.

In both lease agreements, Dze L’Kant will bear the costs of subdividing the properties and cover development costs.

The 11th Street property is already zoned to allow multi-family residential developments and day care centers.

The location is next door to the Houston Retirement Society’s Pleasant Valley Village complex on 11th Street and is part of just over 13 acres purchased by the Houston District in 2022.

Consultants who examined the site recommended that the district protect a road right-of-way on the remaining 13 acres once an exact size of the leased property is determined.

This is because the rest of the property is not accessible from other directions.

The district purchased more than 13 acres for $229,900.

As such, the property fits into the district’s long-term plan to establish a form of land bank on which a number of civic or other purpose-built structures would be located.