Providing housing and building community for those at risk of homelessness
Who we are
In our network, Anhart Community Housing Society (ACH) is the mother of all entities. ACH is a privately funded charity committed to preventing homelessness through creating and operating affordable housing for people with household incomes less than $40,000. It has owned and operated low-income housing since 2002, although it used the name Community Builders Benevolence Foundation until 2018.
Housing
ACH currently owns 84 units of housing in three buildings in Vancouver: The Dodson Rooms at 25 E Hastings, 626 Alexander, and 179 Main Street. ACH also owns a vacant lot at 138 Main St. in Vancouver. Anhart Homes, a community contribution company founded by ACH, has applied for a development permit for a 70-unit microsuite rental building.
Story
Our story began in 2000, when a small group of community-minded investors purchased the first of two single room occupancy (SRO) buildings in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. They partnered with ACH to operate the housing, providing affordable rent and support to tenants at risk of homelessness. ACH developed a bottom-up operations model, giving leadership and maintenance duties to the tenants.
In 2013, these investors donated the buildings for half of fair market value to the society. This social impact investment gave ACH the capital it needed in 2017 to kickstart an ambitious program of building affordable housing. The following year ACH created Anhart Homes, a community contribution company, to develop new housing and purchased seven vacant lots in Hope, Merritt and Vancouver.
Anhart Homes
Anhart Homes is the business arm of the network, dedicated to building affordable rental housing. Profits will be reinvested into an Affordable Rental Fund administered by ACH to subsidize rents and support programs for people with low household income.