The Ryder: 40 units of affordable rental housing in Hope.

Many small towns across Canada have been significantly impacted by rising real estate values and a lack of purpose-driven rental housing in recent years — and Hope is no exception.

With the help of a pre-construction loan from the Vancity Affordable Community Housing Program, Anhart Homes began their affordable housing initiative with The Ryder: a 40-unit affordable rental community in Hope, BC that now houses seniors, people working entry- to mid-level jobs, people with disabilities, and small families.

The Ryder is the only purpose-built rental housing in Hope in the past 30 years. The building was set up to encourage a community of peer support, with a leadership that includes tenants in paid positions who are responsible for community watch, room booking, outreach, maintenance, labour jobs, and tenant services.

Anhart Homes develops affordable rental housing projects for people with household incomes less than $40,000. Their goal is to build 20,000 affordable rental homes across Canada by 2030.

Vancity impact.

Vancity believes that safe, secure, and affordable housing should be available to everyone. For many years, we've worked with organizations that help people living along the housing continuum: from emergency shelters through to transitional and subsidized housing, cooperatives, below-market rentals and property ownership.

The Vancity Affordable Community Housing Program plays a key role in this strategy by providing low-cost and flexible loans to support capital needs in the pre-development phase of affordable housing development projects. Since 2011, the program has supported the development of 5,658 affordable rental homes.