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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 2017 Your community. Your stories.
TRI-CITY
NEWS
149 are in $100k club for Coq. city Eight city staffers earn over $200k, says SOFI report GARY MCKENNA
The Tri-CiTy News
A one-time retroactive payout to firefighters in 2015 means that the total cost of salaries and benefits for Coquitlam city staffers stayed relatively stable in 2016, according to the recently released statement of financial information. The SOFI report shows that overall salary costs actually fell $240,000 to $78.6 million last year, with close to 400 employees earning $75,000 or more and 149 of those making more than $100,000. But 2015 was an anomaly that skews the year-over-year comparison, according to Michelle Hunt, the city’s general manager of finance and technology. “Last year, there was a retroactive payout to the firefighters,” she said. “There were a lot more people in the $75,000 or above because they received those.” She added that the actual increase is more likely closer to $1 million after the retroactive payouts are taken into account. see $16.3 MILLION, page 8
GARY MCKENNA/THE TRI-CITY NEWS
Bobbi Style, a resident of the Hoy Creek Housing Co-op in Coquitlam, says he received a notice that rental subsidies in the complex are ending as of July 1. For Style, who uses a wheelchair, that could mean a rent increase from $350 per month to $1,100.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Co-op tenants given notice Subsidized rents on the way out at Hoy Creek Co-op GARY MCKENNA
The Tri-CiTy News
Residents at Coquitlam’s Hoy Creek Housing Co-op fear they will soon be evicted after
receiving notice last week that rental subsidies will no longer be available after July 1 — and that could mean massive rent increases for some. Bobbi Style, a 12-year tenant who was born with cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, told The Tri-City News that without the subsidy, he is bracing to pay $1,100 per month instead of the current $350. The higher
cost is more than he receives in monthly disability payments and he said there is not enough time to make alternate arrangements for his accommodation before the end of June. “How the hell am I going to pay that?” he said. “I’m not — and they know it.” Style is one of 35 residents in the 97-unit housing complex, located at Johnson Street
and Guildford Way, who receives a subsidy through an operating agreement between the Hoy Creek Housing Co-op and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). On June 7, a letter from the co-op’s property management company was slipped under his door stating that the agreement expires at the end of the month.
“There is such little notice,” Style said. “Nobody will be able to scramble to meet that. On July 1, everybody will be defaulting on their rent.” Anna Distl, another resident in the building, said the end of the operating agreement will have ramifications for the entire housing complex. see ‘WE’RE SCREWED’, page 9
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