ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
Date: June 14, 1995
TO: Vancouver City Council
FROM: Director of Social Planning
SUBJECT: Capital Grant for Kiwassa Neighbourhood House
Phase II Expansion
RECOMMENDATION
THAT City Council approve a Capital Grant of up to
$155,000 to Kiwassa Neighbourhood Services Association to
pay for one-third the cost of construction of an
additional 2,400 sq. ft. of activity space at Kiwassa
Neighbourhood House; source of funds is the City-owned
Social Service Facilities component of the 1995 Capital
Budget.
GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS
The General Manager of Community Services submits the
foregoing for CONSIDERATION.
COUNCIL POLICY
Approval of grant recommendations requires eight affirmative
votes.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this report is to recommend approval of a
capital grant for a 2,400 sq. ft. addition to Kiwassa
Neighbourhood House. This expansion was planned for when
Kiwassa was first approved and is now necessary to meet program
demands.
BACKGROUND
Construction of Kiwassa Neighbourhood House (KNH), located at
2425 Oxford Street, was completed in June 1992. It was built
as part of a joint social housing/neighbourhood house project
on City-owned land.
The neighbourhood house has a total floor space of
approximately 11,000 sq. ft. in a two-storey wood-frame
building, although only a portion of the second storey has been
completed. This facility contains a licensed group daycare, a
"family place", a seniors centre, office spaces, community
kitchen, and a number of meeting and activity spaces of varying
sizes.
When the House was constructed, approximately 2,400 sq. ft. of
space was deleted from the plans for the second floor because
there was insufficient funding available. This space was to
contain four activity rooms, two washrooms and a lounge area.
However, KNH was constructed in such a manner as to facilitate
the addition of this space at some further date, with minimal
changes required to the existing building.
KNH has initiated the completion of construction drawings for
this project, and they applied for, and received (on February
16, 1995) a development permit. With assistance from City
staff from Facilities Development, a firm construction budget
has been established and a fixed price contract will be signed
with Tri-Power Construction Ltd. Pending approval of the
required funding, construction is scheduled to begin as soon as
possible to minimize impacts on KNH programs and the adjacent
school during the summer.
DISCUSSION
Since the new KNH was completed, there has been a substantial
increase in the services and programs provided. The total
operating budget grew from approximately $700,000 in 1990 to
just under $2 million in 1994. More than a dozen new programs
have been established and a minimum of 3-4 local community
groups per week use the facility during the evenings and/or
weekends.
However, the limits of a space that is smaller than needed are
beginning to show. It now looks like one of the adult ESL
classes will have to be dropped in the Fall, and one of the
non-profit groups which was operating out of Kiwassa has been
asked to relocate - all because of a lack of space. Requests
for new programs or use of space by community groups have been
refused or put on hold. All levels of government are pursuing
models of integrated service delivery, yet the one obvious
location for establishing such programs, Kiwassa, is not
available because of insufficient space.
FUNDING
As of December 31, 1992, total expenditure for the new KNH were
$1,890,000. The sources of funding were:
City of Vancouver $ 367,000
GO B.C. 575,000
Kiwassa fund-raising 948,000
$1,890,000
The site and building are owned by the City. The site was
purchased with City funds which were reimbursed from the
disposition of the previous KNH site, resulting in no net cost
to the City. Thus, for an investment of $367,000, the City has
acquired an asset worth almost $2,000,000. Similarly, the
relatively small Community Services Grant ($51,000 in 1995)
given annually to KNH supports an operating budget almost 40
times as large.
The budget for the phase II expansion is $465,800, broken down
as follows:
Construction $404,650
Architect and consultant fees 43,500
Administrative costs 11,400
Equipment and furnishings 22,750
$482,300
Minus GST rebate 16,475
Total $465,825
KNH has already secured 2/3 of the needed funding. It has a
firm commitment for federal-provincial infrastructure funding
up to a maximum of $310,550, subject to securing the balance of
$155,275 from other sources.
The City 1994-1996 Capital Plan specifically provides
$2,225,000 (1993 dollars) for the development, redevelopment or
relocation of City-owned social service facilities. Council
allocated $450,000 of this amount for 1995 projects. Staff had
anticipated that an application from Kiwassa would be part of
the 1995 program, and are recommending approval of a grant of
up to $155,000.
Approval of this grant will not set a precedent with respect to
other groups which may have received infrastructure funding as
none of the other groups which have been funded qualifies as a
social service facility. Council set aside funding in the
Capital Plan specifically for City-owned social services and
the Kiwassa application is clearly an eligible facility.
Kiwassa could, in theory, be asked to fundraise money in
addition to the 2/3 funding it has already secured. Social
Planning staff concur with KNH's assessment that this would be
very difficult since Kiwassa raised $948,000 less than three
years ago and is currently doing ongoing operating fundraising.
There are also other major capital/operating fundraising
campaigns currently underway (e.g., Vancouver Public Library,
Collingwood Neighbour-hood House, YWCA Capital Program), which
could compete with a second Kiwassa campaign.
Approval of the City grant at this time will allow construction
to occur over the summer, minimizing effects on KNH and the
adjacent school.
The actual amount of the City grant will be determined on the
basis of reimbursement of one-third of actual costs, up to the
maximum approved. In keeping with past practice on the payment
of Capital Grants, we propose to provide half the grant when
construction begins, and the remainder, up to the maximum
amount approved, will be paid upon completion of the project.
CONCLUSION
Although the new Kiwassa Neighbourhood House facility was
completed only three years ago, it was known then that
additional space would be required to meet the needs of the
neighbourhood. It is now possible that the complete facility,
as originally planned, can be finished. The recommended
funding from the City will make this plan a reality.
* * * * *