Sure, I would be happy to.
The Squamish Nation only had one housing program for a really long time. That was the single-family homes funded through own-source revenue and through ISC funding. For the longest time, that was the only program. Those homes are essentially free. Nobody pays rent. Unfortunately, that's what caused a lot of the issues with housing in our community, such as the really long wait-list.
We also have lands in north Vancouver in different communities, but they're being built out, so there isn't a lot of room to build single-family homes anymore.
The Squamish Nation looked at different models of housing authorities and non-profits that were being developed by first nations throughout Canada and decided to go with the housing authority non-profit model. The idea was to start developing higher-density projects, like townhomes and mid-density and—hopefully, one day—high-density homes, and in more rural and urban settings.
Also, the idea was to separate housing governance from council. We would have a board of directors through our non-profit that would manage the strategic thinking but also the society's operations. Through that, we are able now to charge rent.
A lot of the time, the rents are defined by the program of housing and the funding we receive. CMHC or B.C. Housing will say that this is an affordable housing project and that we have to define it by, let's say, 30% less than market for north Vancouver or 30% less than market for Vancouver. However, those rates are in no way comparable to the income in our communities, even though we are obviously in one of the most expensive places. The affordability markers that CMHC uses are in no way affordable, so we have to look at other ways to subsidize those rents.
Then you have other rents such as the shelter rate and 30% of income. Those ones are defined by the programs; they aren't defined by us. It would be great for us to be able to define affordability, but under the current housing programs, we don't have the ability.