Tag Archives: Cortes Community Housing Society

Housing

RIEP Presentation: Affordable Housing Across The Islands

One of the 2025 RIEP Virtual Forum presentations was a panel discussion of how the affordable housing societies were faring on six rural islands. There were a lot of common themes running throughout their stories: difficulties obtaining funding through BC Housing, CMHC and other organizations whose requirements are drawn up for urban rather than rural areas; the cost of building on remote islands; relationships with regional districts and Islands Trust; and water issues. The moderator was Mike Hoebel from the  Galiano Affordable Living Initiative Society (GALI).

Mike Hoebel: “The lack of affordable housing is truly a crisis in our communities and housing policy was a major item for discussion back at the RIEP 2023 In-Person Forum Gabriola. Today we’re going to hear from a number of people about housing related initiatives underway in their communities.”

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Community, Development

This Week: 2025 Rural Islands Economic Partnership Virtual Forum

The 2025 Rural Islands Economic Partnership (RIEP) Virtual Forum is coming up on Thursday, March 6 and Friday, March 7. Two of the organizers, Francine Carlin and Kate Maddigan are my guests today.

“ It’s going to be a jam packed two half days, 9:15 AM to 12:30 PM.  Our virtual events are really unique because we all live on islands or remote coastal communities and don’t have the opportunity to get together as a collaborative regional grouping. So it’s important to have these virtual events that bring together people from all across the coast and the islands, up from North Island as far as Alert Bay, to Sooke and beyond. So we have a pretty broad reach and this year it’s really important, particularly with the events in the world around economic  issues that relate to  our local  economic and social wellbeing,” explained Francine Carlin, Chair of the Rural Islands Economic Partnership. 

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Housing

Construction Begins at Rainbow Ridge

After years of anticipation,  construction has finally begun on the Rainbow Ridge affordable housing project in downtown Mansons Landing. 

“We had an open house a couple of weeks ago, and we had a lot of back and forth with the seniors village next door. We made some considerable changes to our plans based on their input. Then  Monday, we started clearing the land in preparation for phase 1 of our project,”  explained Sadhu Johnston,  Executive Director of the Cortes Housing Society. 

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Business, Housing

The Cortes Island Wood Makerspace

Cortes Island’s dream of having a makerspace has become a reality. The Cortes Wood Makerspace is being set up in the Orchard Village Shop, 671 Sutil Point Rd, Mansons Landing.

“This idea has been around for a long time. I have heard people talking about it for at least 15 years and some old timers apparently remember even longer. We have lots of people who are woodworkers  or building their own homes and not everyone has to build a shop for themselves and equip it with machinery,” explained Hannu Huuskonen, the Shop Master. 

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Development, Housing

Construction coming to the (Many) Common Areas of Mansons Landing

Close to 50 people turned up at Mansons Hall on January 24, for an update on the construction coming or already underway in the downtown Mansons area. The Cortes Housing Society, Southern Cortes Community Association (SCCA), Cortes Island Community Foundation and Cortes Island Pickleball Society were on hand to describe what’s taking place at Rainbow Ridge, the multipurpose courts and the Village Commons. 

 Regional Director Mark Vonesch exclaimed, “The big news here on Cortes is that the Housing Society is going to start building houses this year.” 

Sandra Wood, who’s been at the heart of the Rainbow Ridge affordable housing project from the beginning, added, “It’s exciting to finally get shovels in the ground. We feel like we’ve been shovel ready for years.”   

Manda Aufochs Gillespie, from the Cortes Island Foundation, described another focus of the meeting “More and more, it’s clear that the Village Commons is really this whole area and all the things that we gather in the heart of Mansons to do.”

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