A small not-for-profit society run by a volunteer board of directors building rental housing for seniors is a challenging enough enterprise at the best of times. Then throw into the mix a global pandemic and skyrocketing lumber prices and see if that will slow them down. Nope.
With many hurdles to overcome, red tape, paperwork and more paperwork, permits to obtain, approvals to receive, boxes to check, and more hoops to jump through than you can even imagine, Powell River Sunset Homes Society is doing the almost unimaginable - constructing new rental apartments for seniors and they are succeeding!
There has been some criticism from bystanders as to the change from a butterfly roof to a flat roof and to this the Society Board can solidly answer, it was either the butterfly roof had to go, or the entire project had to go. The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it more changes and uncertainty than one can fathom but one thing that had not been anticipated was just how expensive lumber, engineered wood products and framing materials were going to become and how much shortage there would be across North America. The Board had to make a difficult decision to either change the butterfly roof to a flat roof or the project may not have been able to go ahead.
Now that the roof is on we can see that it was definitely the right decision. The building looks amazing!
Next steps in the coming weeks will see the rest of the windows and doors being installed and cladding starting to go on, so very soon the building form and character is really going to take shape as the waiting list gets ever longer. The community of Powell River is in desperate need of much more rental housing of different levels of affordability so this building will be a welcome addition to the rental housing landscape.
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