Our Services
AHMA provides the following services:
- Oversee Aboriginal Housing providers across British Columbia
- Support the development of new housing for Aboriginal people
- Manage Urban Native and Rural Native Housing portfolios
- Administer capacity development through training, consulting and advising member societies
Oversees Aboriginal Housing Providers by
- Providing financial, administrative, and technical support to Societies
- Administering long-term operating agreements and managing the provision of housing subsidies.
These long-term operating agreements set out the operating and financial targets to ensure that the existing housing portfolio is well-managed and well-maintained
Definitions
Term or Abbreviation |
Definition |
|
| AHA | ||
| Aboriginal Housing Advisor AHMA Aboriginal Housing Advisors work with society and co-operative representatives to provide assistance with budgeting and operations. They also conduct building inspections and use this information to plan for upgrading and maintenance. |
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| AHMA | ||
| Aboriginal Housing Management Association | ||
| AHOP | ||
| Aboriginal Homeless Outreach Program | ||
| BC Housing | ||
| The provincial government agency responsible for subsidized housing in British Columbia. BC Housing owns and manages about 7,800 units of older affordable housing for families, seniors, and people with disabilities, and provides rent subsidies for affordable non-profit and co-op housing developments and some private market units. | ||
| Capital Replacements | ||
| Capital items that need to be replaced as their useful life wears out, such as appliances, flooring, furnaces, hot water tanks, carpets, linoleum, window covering, painting and paving. These items are included in the list of eligible items for the replacement reserve fund. | ||
| CMHC | ||
Canada Mortgage and Housing
Corporation (CMHC) CMHC is the
national housing agency of the federal
government and:
|
||
| Core Housing Need | ||
| Households in core housing need are those individuals who currently reside in housing that is either in need of major repair, does not have enough bedrooms for the size and makeup of the household, or costs 30 percent or more of their total income, and who are unable to rent an alternative housing unit that meets these standards without paying 30 percent or more of their income. | ||
| Devolution | ||
| The transfer of authority from one level of government to another, in AHMA’s case, for off-reserve Aboriginal social housing | ||
| Economic Rent | ||
| Economic rent is the estimated amount it costs per unit per month to operate the development at a break even level. The economic rent is set at the beginning of each fiscal year and is used to calculate subsidy and repayable assistance. | ||
| HOMES BC Homeless/ At Risk (HAR) |
||
| HOMES BC is a provincial housing program that funds second stage housing to help lower income people at risk of homelessness. HAR developments provide an intermediate stage of housing, between emergency shelters and independent housing, and offer support services to help people regain or maintain their independence. | ||
| Housing Provider | ||
| Non-profit housing societies and housing co-operatives, which own and manage affordable housing developments. This term can also include private market landlords, through which BC Housing provides rent supplements to low-income households. | ||
| ILBC | ||
| Independent Living BC | ||
| Land Lease | ||
| Most developments are built on land owned by the rovincial Rental Housing Corporation (PRHC), a Community Land Trust, a municipal government, or a non profit agency, and leased to the non-profit societies and housing co-operatives that manage the developments. Most land leases are prepaid, and the cost is included as part of the mortgage payment, although some leases require a separate monthly or quarterly payment. | ||
| Market Rent | ||
| Market rent means the amount a unit could be rented for on a monthly basis in the private market, based on an appraisal. Even though the economic, or break even, rent for operating a unit may exceed the market rent, an individual’s rent contribution will not exceed the market rent. | ||
| Mortgage | ||
| The mortgage is the loan amount borrowed to cover the cost of the development. Many mortgages also include the cost of the prepaid land lease. The mortgage must be repaid over the number of years the money was borrowed for, which is the amortization period of the mortgage. | ||
| Non-Profit Housing | ||
| Rental housing that is owned and operated by community-based non-profit societies. The mandates of these societies are to provide safe, secure, affordable accommodation to households with low to moderate incomes. Most non-profit housing societies receive some form of financial assistance from government to enable them to offer affordable rents. Each society operates independently under the directions of a volunteer board of directors. | ||
| Non-RGI | ||
| Forty per cent of HOMES BC non-profit and co-op units are non-RGI, where rent is not geared-to-income. People pay rents or housing charges that are slightly lower than the cost for private market rental units. BC Housing provides “repayable assistance” to cover the remaining costs for these units, which societies and co-ops eventually repay. (See RGI and repayable assistance.) | ||
| Operating Agreement | ||
| The operating agreement is the contract that defines the roles and responsibilities of your organization and BC Housing, the criteria for selecting tenants and members, resident rent/housing charge contributions, rent reviews, budget and financial reporting requirements, rent subsidy payments, the process for transferring residents who become over or under housed, record keeping requirements, the operational review process, minimum insurance and liability coverage, and the process for terminating an operating agreement. | ||
| Operating Budget | ||
| An operating budget is the annual budget for a development. The budget forecasts costs for operating a development, based on income and expenses, and is used to determine how much subsidy BC Housing provides each month to run the building. | ||
| Repayable Assistance | ||
| Housing providers charge 90 per cent of the market rent for residents in non-RGI units. BC Housing sends ‘repayable assistance’ to cover the difference between 90 per cent of the appraised rent and the cost of operating the units — called the economic rent. Initially, the economic rent will exceed the non-RGI amount you charge. But the gap between the non-RGI amount and operating costs begins to close over the years. When market rents exceed economic rents, you start repaying the loan assistance, using the surplus funds you collect from the non-RGI rents. Refer to Chapter three for more information on repayable assistance. | ||
| Replacement Reserve | ||
| Developments are required to have a replacement reserve to set aside funds in the annual budget to cover the future replacement cost of refrigerators, stoves, furnaces and other major capital replacement items | ||
| RNH | ||
| Rural and Native Housing | ||
| Subsidy | ||
| AHMA provides monthly subsidies to organizations to fund the costs of operating subsidized housing units. The subsidy is based on the operating costs set out in the annual budget, less the total rents / housing charges collected from tenants. Subsidy payments include rent subsidies / repayable assistance and cover the mortgage payments, building maintenance and other shelter-related costs. | ||
| Tenant Rent Contribution | ||
| Organizations running subsidized housing developments calculate how much rent or housing charges tenants and co-op members will pay for RGI units. The amount will vary depending on the number of people in the household and the total household income. The most common formula for the tenant rent contribution is 30 per cent of household income. Refer to the Rent Calculation section of the Operations Guide for detailed instructions on calculating rent contributions |