What I have Learnt – Ryan Chahl

This project has been a very big part of my life for the past six weeks. It has provided me with the opportunity to meet many interesting people and I have learned a great deal from them. The biggest change for me was my view of the homeless. Instead of ignoring them, I will approach them and talk to them. Most of the time they enjoy just the simple experience of someone being civil with them.

I have also learned a vast amount about the real estate market, thanks to our realtors who we have been in contact with. Not only this I have had the chance to experience ideas about why people invest in certain projects and more importantly why they would choose not to invest!

Another eye opener for me was the vast network of people who are already working on the homless situation in Vancouver. All of these people are very willing to help and this has made our project far more feasable than I ever could have imagined. I would personally like to thank everyone we have met and for all of their support. I hope this project can carry on and something good can come of it.

Meeting with Homless Advocates

By: Ryan

This was a meeting attempting to teach people how best to help the homeless population. Mayor Gregor Robertson started the meeting off with an opening speech claiming that he wants to end homelessness by 2015 in Vancouver. He admitted this was a very ambitious goal but it was one that he wants to strive for.

Sue Noga then took the podium and discussed homeless action week which is taking place on October 11 – 17 in which affordable housing is the main theme this year. The discussions then revolved around how to set up your own event to raise awareness and help the homeless.

Many people are currently finding ways to better provide ID to the homeless as this can be a major barrier that they have to overcome. Some people were also organizing events that provided a repair service for bikes and wheelchairs.

If you want to organize an event to help the homeless the number one tip they had was to never give up! Another thing to remember is that people who are already well involved with the homeless are always willing to help so make sure you contact people who are already experienced in the field.

Gregor Robertson

Break Down of an Investor Giving Circle

By: Ryan

Currently you can purchase a 3 bedroom apartment at around $200,000 in Port Coquitlam so this is the price we will use to run though this example. We would need a 25% down payment so that we would not require any CMHC insurance so that makes $10,000 from each of our five investors.  The interest rate used is below the current interest rate on mortgages but we will be able to source this through a bank that is willing to help our cause.

• 3 bedroom apartment – $200,000
  • 25% down – $50,000

• Interest Rate – 4.5%($710)
• Yearly Taxes – $1,700
• Yearly Insurance + Maintenance – $3,400

• Monthly Total Payments – $1,135

With 3 homeless people combining their allowance of $375 a month for rent it provides a total of $1125 which can be used to cover the monthly payments that have to be made.

}3 Bedroom Apartment   $200,000

◦25% Down  $50,000

}

}Interest Rate  4.5% ($710)

}Yearly Taxes  $1,700

}Yearly Insurance + Maintenance $3,400

}

}Monthly Total  $1,135

Legal Issues Regarding Property Rental In BC

by: Ryan Chahl

Our social innovation needs to consider different funding options. Our first option is to approach the church or community organization and ask them to fund the housing unit. The second option is to consider a property management scheme, where we would look for investors who would pool their money in order to purchase a piece of property together.  The investors would be able to have a safe investment in the form of the appreciating property as well as the $375 per month for each client who stays at the place as this is the amount of government assistance that is available for housing for one person.

Here is an overview of some legal issues we might encounter.

The length of time we rent a unit for can be any amount of time, this is decided upon in the contract.

The usual standard for this is the tenant takes a years lease of the property and once this is complete they can either re-new the contract or move to a month to month basis. The issue we will have with this is the fact the rent is for one year, for our purpose it would be a lot safer if we could go from month to month right from the start. Most landlords would not agree to a contract that give the tenants so much power but as we are a non profit organization trying to help people we may be able to find someone who is willing to do this as a gesture of good will.

Can we can terminate the rental agreement without a penalty?

The answer to this is almost always no unless the lease is up. The best way to resolve this is to push for the month to month rental agreement so we are not tied down to the property for a long period of time. If we can’t find anyone who is willing to do this type of rental agreement we will have to try and put a clause in the contract that allows us to terminate the contract after a period of time we are comfortable with. Once again this is not normally done but we will be trying to use our non profit organization to gain support.

How much will our rent be?

This is going to be one of the biggest challenges we will face. Rental prices are lower in the tri-cities are compared to many other places in Grater Vancouver but this does not mean they are cheap. We will be trying to find a landlord who is willing to rent at a very low cost and we believe the best way to do this is by searching for people at church venues where people are open to helping people who are less fortunate than themselves.

Another funding option: Using “Giving Circle” Investment Groups to Fund Housing for the Homeless

by: Ryan Chahl

This is an idea that looks for several different investors that want to be able to buy property but either don’t want to invest large amounts of money or can’t afford to buy the property on their own. With the housing prices currently low throughout Canada investors are beginning to realize the potential for long term profits. The basis of the idea is that the investors come together to make the down payment on a piece of property. Our organization then house homeless people in the property and using the allowance the homeless people get from the government we will be able to cover the cost of the investors mortgage.

This has several benefits to the investor:

• They have to put less into the investment so they are not risking as much
• Due to the lower amount needed it opens up the opportunity for people with lower incomes to own a portion of a property
• It is a hard asset that will increase in value so they have a long term return on investment
• There is less risk involved as we can guarantee their mortgage payments whereas if they rent it out themselves they may have times when it is vacant
• If they are part of a company they can advertise the fact they are involved in helping reduce the problem of homelessness though a social innovation.

These benefits will be used to attract the investors. The fact that mortage rates are currently very low also makes this a viable solution.

Welcome to Help the Homeless

Hello everyone and welcome to our blog about helping the issue of homeless in the Tri-Cities area of Metro Vancouver. We are a  group of  students from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia who are trying to make a difference with a social innovation that we are going to come up with. Our group consists of four business majors and one interactive art major. Below is a slide show of where the problem currently stands and how we are planning on tackling the issue. Please feel free to comment on any of our posts and let us know what you think.