In partnership with the Bowen Island Municipality, BIRCH (Bowen Island Resilient Community Housing) is working to support a healthy, inclusive, and resilient community where everyone has access to a safe and stable home. We invite all Bowen Island community members to complete the 2026 Housing Survey. Your input will help guide future non-profit housing initiatives and shape the long-term housing vision for our island.
An Employer Housing Survey is available to better understand local workforce housing needs. Bowen Island employers have told us housing is affecting hiring, retention, and service delivery.
This survey gathers data to:
Quantify workforce housing impacts
Identify viable employer-supported solutions
Inform municipal and nonprofit housing strategy
Owners or managers of Bowen Island–based businesses, nonprofits, or organizations with at least one employee or contractor working on Bowen Island are encouraged to complete this survey.
We thank you in advance for your time and effort to complete each survey (as relevant).
All survey responses are optional and confidential.
As we look back on 2025, we are proud to share what has truly been a banner year for Bowen Island Resilient Community Housing (BIRCH). Together with Bowen Island Municipality (BIM), community partners, and our dedicated volunteers and staff, we have made extraordinary progress toward creating and preserving homes for the people who make our island thrive.
A Historic Milestone: The BIRCH/BIM Partnering Agreement
This year marked a transformative step for community housing on Bowen. BIRCH and BIM entered into a formal partnering agreement that officially designates BIRCH as the municipality’s community housing partner. Under this agreement, BIRCH will build and acquire community housing and will also serve in an advisory capacity to the planning department, helping ensure alignment with BIM’s community housing policies and the diverse housing needs of our island community. This partnership is the culmination of years of shared vision and collaborative work—an achievement we celebrate with deep gratitude.
Operational Funding & New Staff Capacity
Concurrent with the Partnering Agreement, BIM allocated three years of operating funds from its federal Housing Accelerator Fund. This foundational investment has allowed BIRCH to establish its first staffed team, including:
• Executive Director • Housing Development Manager • Administrative Manager
With dedicated staff now in place, BIRCH is better equipped than ever to deliver on its mandate and accelerate progress on community housing solutions.
Hemlock Hill Village (1033 Miller Road) – Project Update
In partnership with the Lookout Health and Housing Society, significant milestones were reached in 2025 as this much-anticipated project moves toward construction:
• All permits have been submitted and are expected to be issued in January • Funding is in the final approval stages • Construction is anticipated to begin in Spring 2026
Hemlock Hill Village will deliver much-needed secure rental housing for Bowen Island, and we are energized by its momentum.
Lot 1 – Moving Into the Next Phase
At its December meeting, BIM Council approved $150,000 in pre-development project funds for BIRCH to continue advancing work on Lot 1. We have engaged New Commons Developments to help guide us through this exciting project. These funds will support:
• Site due diligence (environmental, biological, topographical, and geotechnical assessments) • Market survey and housing needs analysis • Site and infrastructure planning • Financial modeling and project phasing
Lot 1 represents a unique opportunity to shape the future of community housing on Bowen, and these next steps are critical to that vision.
With Gratitude – Our Board of Directors
We extend a heartfelt and enormous thank you to our volunteer Board of Directors for their unwavering commitment and countless volunteer hours. Their perseverance and dedication over many years have paved the way for the remarkable progress we celebrate today. We are also pleased to welcome our newest board members Philippa Gumley and Alex Jurgensen, as well as welcoming back past board member Tim Wake, all of whom bring additional depth and expertise to our dedicated team.
Looking Ahead: The 2026 Housing Survey
In early 2026, BIRCH will launch the next island-wide Housing Survey, following up on our 2019 and 2022 surveys. We encourage all residents, employers, and off-island workers who commute here to participate. Your input will guide community housing strategies for Bowen Island. Please keep an eye out for the survey—and help us spread the word.
Thank You for Your Continued Support
The progress of 2025 has been extraordinary, and it would not have been possible without the support, insights, and engagement of the Bowen Island community.
We look forward to continuing this work together in 2026.
BIRCH is hiring a part time administrative manager – please check out the posting. If you are passionate about creating housing options for Bowen Island, love being organized and thrive on the details, we’d love to hear from you!
Come meet us!
We’d love to chat with you:
Saturday, August 16th 10am-12pm – Farmer’s Market @ BICS
BIRCH is applying to BC Housing to the BC Housing Community Housing Fund this fall. Support from the Bowen community has been critical to our progress so far and we’re hoping that you will make the time to help us again and send a letter of support by Oct 15th.
Background Bowen Island Resilient Community Housing (BIRCH) is the only non-profit housing society based on Bowen Island and is working to develop a more diverse range of housing options for our community.
We have land! Bowen Island Municipality has committed a 0.15 HA vacant parcel at 1033 Miller Road to build a community housing project with approximately 24 units of secure rental housing. With this land BIRCH will help build a more connected, resilient community by providing secure rental housing that will suit a variety of needs for Bowen Island community members, with a special focus on the Island’s most vulnerable: those with mobility challenges, low-income families, individuals, and seniors, and moderate-income families.
The need for affordable and non-market housing in our community is well-known, confirmed by a Housing Needs Assessment completed in 2020 and BIRCH’s own community housing surveys (2019, 2022). Additionally, the Bowen Island Community Foundation’s Vital Conversations most recent gathering identified affordable housing as a priority.
This project will provide urgently needed rental housing stock that is has a variety of size and rent levels. Providing secure tenure in rental housing is critical to maintaining a diverse community.
The current housing situation on Bowen Island (updated with 2021 Census data)
90% single family homes
85% Ownership
21% owner households spending 30% or more of its income on shelter costs
35% of rental tenant households spending 30% or more of its income on shelter costs
MLS Home Price Index, September 2023, lists detached homes price at $1,210,700
This requires an annual income of $253,491.10 (calculated with 10% down, with payments at 30% of household income)
The median total income for households on Bowen is $111,000±
Funding We are currently preparing to apply to the next round of BC Housing’s Community Housing Fund. If we are successful in our application, we anticipate approximately $3.8m capital contribution that will be used to fund the construction of the project. In addition, we will be seeking funding from CMHC’s National Co-Investment Fund as well as contributions from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Green Municipal Fund to increase the energy efficiency and sustainability of the building.
Please send your letters of support to robyn@birchousing.org. We will collate them and submit them with the housing application. Your response by October 15th would be appreciated.
If you’d like a template for your letter, please click here.
Thank you so very much for your support. We cannot do this without you.
David McCullum Board Chair Bowen Island Resilient Community Housing
We are grateful that Bowen Council was unanimous in its support of the BIRCH variance request and has referred it to its committees for comment. They also would like the public’s comments and are asking for your input before July 24th at 4pm.
Comments may be sent:
• by E-mail to mayorandcouncil@bimbc.ca; • by dropping off in person; • by mail to 981 Artisan Lane, Bowen Island, BC, V0N1G2; or • by fax to 604-947-0193
We are asking the community to send letters of support. These variances are critical to the viability of our project and so we hope you’re able to make the time to show your support.
Thank you so very much for your support. We cannot do this without you.
David McCullum Board Chair Bowen Island Resilient Community Housing
Hello Bowen Island, we need your help in the form of a letter or email to Bowen Island Municipal Council by June 22nd!
Bowen Island Resilient Community Housing (BIRCH) is applying for a Development Variance Permit for our community rental housing project located on Miller Road (next to the new Health Centre). We are seeking two variances: the first is a reduction of parking spaces from the required 24 to 10.
The second variance is an increase to building height from the zoned maximum of 9.0m to 13.29m.
Only with both of these variances will we be able to maximize our use of the property and provide the ~25 units of secure rental housing that we have been working towards these last few years.
We are asking the community to send letters of support. These variances are critical to the viability of our project and so we hope you’re able to make the time to show your support.
Our application will be introduced at the June 26th Council meeting, with a vote coming later in the summer at the July 24th meeting.
Please send your letters:
• by E-mail to mayorandcouncil@bimbc.ca; • by dropping off in person; • by mail to 981 Artisan Lane, Bowen Island, BC, V0N1G2; or • by fax to 604-947-0193
Thank you so very much for your support. We cannot do this without you.
David McCullum Board Chair Bowen Island Resilient Community Housing
Director Adam Lougheed and the brains of the sign erection project Ralph proudly show off BIRCH’s Development Variance Permit Application notice.
BIRCH is proud to have reached the next step in the project: asking the Municipal Council to approve our application to both increase the permitted height of our building and decrease the required number of parking spaces.
The height will allow us to maximize our use of the land and offer the most rental spaces possible, and the parking reduction does the same, while also recognizing that this will be a project that results in housing that is walkable to the school, shops, the ferry, and the core facilities of our community.
Please watch this space for our call for support as this decision comes before Council.
On October 15th our community goes to the polls to select its local government. BIRCH has questions for each candidate:
What tangible commitment are you as a candidate willing to make to BIRCH and the Miller Road project, and uphold once elected?
Will you support implementing the MRDT to provide revenue for building affordable housing for Bowen?
Background
Several years ago, we saw a gap
in the kind of housing being developed on Bowen. With no non-profit
organisation in a position to go after the newly available provincial and
federal funding opportunities, Bowen Island Resilient Community Housing (BIRCH)
Society was formed. We reached out to the municipality, and they agreed to
partner with us in the development of new affordable housing in the community
and provide land for the project.
BIRCH is primarily volunteer
run, with our executive director working at below market compensation. With the
approximate $30,000 of operational funds BIM has provided in the past 4 years,
BIRCH has been able to secure almost $200,000 in project funding for the Miller
Road affordable housing project (note –this funding cannot be used for BIRCH
operations). We have secured our consultant team and completed schematic design
of the building. We have also recently formed a partnership with a
well-established Vancouver-based housing organisation that greatly improves our
chances of securing government funding.
During the campaign for the
2018 Bowen Island municipal election, 100% of the candidates for Council and
the Mayoralty publicly pledged their support to working to solve the housing
crisis that the Island was facing. Each candidate endorsed the project that
BIRCH had been pursuing in support of solving this problem. However, after the
election, Council drastically reduced the land that they would make available
to the BIRCH project. The resulting renegotiation resulted in a significant
reduction in the land available to the project, drastically reducing the scope
of BIRCH’s ability to build, and sending mixed messages to potential funding
partners regarding the municipality’s support for the project.
In the 4 years since then, our
relationship with BIM has felt less and less like a partnership. In 2019 we were
granted a 3-year agreement to lease on a lot on Miller Road. Recently, a
renewal of that agreement was reduced to 1 year – according to the CAO this reduction
was in order to “hold (BIRCH’s) feet to the fire” and ensure that the land remain
available for “any higher purpose.” These types of statements have made us at
BIRCH feel that we are not seen as valuable partners, working together with the
municipality to build housing for the community – but rather as an outside
organisation that needs to continually prove its value.
Additionally, operational
funding has been very difficult to secure. Applications to BIM for multi-year
funding were turned down, and it was only after 3 unsuccessful grant
applications that council made a special resolution to provide operational
funds. We repeatedly had to make our case for the need for operational funds to
support our organisation – once again feeling we need to prove our worthiness
as a partner. Continually having to justify our organisation and its role in
developing housing on Bowen has taken its toll on our board and staff and our
motivation.
Lastly, our advocacy for
implementation of the MRDT has not been made a priority by the current council.
This tax would provide revenue to the municipality that could be used towards
affordable housing – such as operational funds for BIRCH or other housing
organisations.
BIRCH does not purport to
have the only answer to the housing crisis, nor is it the only organisation
working towards housing solutions on Bowen Island. We are however, in a unique
position to apply for upcoming government funding opportunities – with our years
of professional experience, work completed to date towards the Miller Road
project and our ongoing efforts at building relationships with funding partners.
With this upcoming election and a new mayor and many new councillors, we are hoping for a stronger relationship and true partnership with the municipality moving forward.
This past summer Bowen Island Resilient Community Housing (BIRCH) conducted our second community housing survey. Like our last survey in 2019, we asked the Bowen community about the current housing situation and for feedback on our proposed housing project. In this most recent survey we have also asked how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the housing situation on Bowen Island.
The survey results summarized in this post will help guide BIRCH as we progress towards the development of non-market affordable rental housing here on Bowen Island. We would like to thank everyone who completed the survey.
Key Takeaways
Similar to the survey we conducted in May 2019, the majority of respondents were middle age, with two-thirds of all responses coming from those between the ages of 50 and 79. We received no survey responses from those under 20, six responses from those between 20-34 and only 3 responses from those 80 years old and above. It is important to note that while these groups may be under represented in the findings summarized below they remain important members of the Bowen community, with unique housing concerns that must be considered.
Respondents from all household
income levels expressed concern about housing affordability and availability on Bowen Island.
Almost all respondents (97%) indicated that their
concerns about housing affordability and availability have increased during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
While the majority of respondents
indicated that their current housing is suitable in the near-term, many had
significant longer-term concerns about their ability to age in place safely.
Consistent with the 2019 survey
results, below-market rental remains the highest priority housing
tenure type, with almost half of all respondents (47%) identifying it as their
top priority.
There is a significant interest in exploring more unconventional
housing types such as mobile and manufactured homes, as well as
“tiny homes”, located on either leasehold pads or non-permanent foundations.
It’s us, BIRCH, or more formally, Bowen Island Resilient Community Housing. It’s been too long since we last talked. We are remedying that by providing an update to the community on BIRCH’s progress, our current project status, and where we’re headed next.
Given the current health situation, the best and safest way to do this is by hosting an online community update event on Wednesday, November 25th at 7 pm.
At this event we will reveal for the first time what the building will look like, a breakdown of unit types, and projected rent levels. Boni Madison Architects, our development consultants CitySpaces, and BIRCH Executive Director Robyn Fenton will be available afterwards to answer questions.
We are really looking forward to seeing you there!
BC Housing has recently supported BIRCH with a $101,500 interest-free loan under its Pre-Development Funding program. This funding supports early stage projects in initiating design for non-market housing by providing funding for refining the building project design and developing more accurate project budgets. This funding will allow BIRCH to continue working with our architects, Boni Maddison Architects, and our development consultants, CitySpaces, to apply for project funding through the BC Housing Community Housing Fund and CMHC’s National Housing Co-Investment Fund. If our final applications are successful, it will allow BIRCH to complete the final design and engineering to begin construction – the ultimate goal being the completion of new community housing on Bowen Island, something the community urgently needs.
As always, we appreciate the support of the Bowen Island community, including Bowen Island Municipality, and look forward to sharing more good news in the near future!
As this year comes to a close, BIRCH would like to take a moment to say thank you to everyone in the community that has helped us along the way.
It was a busy year for BIRCH and included several important milestones for our project: we secured a leasehold lot of community land on Miller Road, we received over $90,000 in grants towards the project and completed a feasibility report.
Looking forward to 2020 and next steps, we’re extremely excited to announce that we’ve selected our project architect, Boni Maddison Architects. Over the next few months we’ll be working with BMA to develop schematic design plans for our first community housing project, and will share those as soon as we’re able to!
Again, thank you Bowen for all your support this past year. We wouldn’t be where we are today without your help. Now, let’s flip that last calendar page and get to work on 2020!
This past Spring BIRCH asked the Bowen Island community about the current housing situation, for feedback on our proposed housing project and thoughts on our future together. This was done as part of the feasibility stage of our project – and generously funded by a grant from the VanCity Foundation.
The feedback summarized in this document will help guide BIRCH as we progress towards the development of non-market rental housing on Bowen Island. We look forward to sharing more insights from the survey in a future report – but for now – here is a summary of the results:
BIRCH is thrilled to announce that at it’s regular council meeting on May 27, 2019, Bowen Island Municipal Council approval a 0.15ha site for BIRCH to build non profit rental housing for the community.
At the same meeting, council agreed to expedite the agreement to lease – a legal document that will secure this site for us and give us the commitment we need to apply for our next stage of funding.
We are very appreciative of the time and efforts of the Mayor’s Standing Committee on Community Lands, Council and Staff – as well as the collaboration of our future neighbours, the Bowen Island Health Centre Foundation.
NEXT STEPS: We will be completing the feasibility stage over the next 6-8 weeks and will be applying to CMHC for SEED funding to move to the next per-development stage – which will include hiring the architects and engineers to design the project.
