Ballenas Housing Society properties serve top quality, tasty food to residents
NANAIMO – While the Ballenas Housing Society is busy securing housing properties for low to moderate income renters on Vancouver Island, Ballenas’ front-line staff are doing all the heavy lifting.
Their Housing, Maintenance and Food Services teams make every day a little brighter for residents at over 20 properties across Nanaimo, Parksville, and Campbell River. Extraordinary efforts from operations staff are the foundation supporting Ballenas’ mission and vision.
“It takes about six hours of focused attention from our team to place a new resident,” says Jessica, Manager of Housing Operations. “Our best practices for reviewing applications, interviewing prospective renters, completing references, and providing property orientations, ensures the home is a good fit for the new resident and that they are a good fit for the community. This tried-and-true process also supports successful tenancies.”
Ballenas Housing Society is focused on keeping properties sustainable.
“When we turnover a unit to a new resident, we ensure it is as fresh and homey as possible,” says Lead Carpenter Callum. “This can take anywhere from a few days to a few months depending upon the condition and age of the unit. We ask ourselves if we’d like our parents to live here and add that extra personal touch.
“Our team is very responsive for general maintenance with many requests addressed by the next business day. Custodial staff ensure all common areas of every building are clean and sanitized.”
Groundskeeping is another specialty where Ballenas staff shines. Their outdoor spaces are beautifully maintained by well-trained, experienced, and caring staff. Some residents also support pride of place with weeding and other voluntary chores.
Ballenas Housing Society provides housing at over 20 properties across Nanaimo, Parksville and Campbell River
They also offer an optional meal program for residents.
“Being able to offer delicious, nutritious, low-cost meals is extremely important, especially for our senior residents,” says Manager of Food Services and Red Seal Chef Dennie. “While our meal program is located at one property, we are hopeful to slowly expand to provide meals at several other properties. This becomes ever more challenging with the increased costs of food and ingredients.”
Ballenas communities also offer a mix of rental rates based on demonstrated need from deep subsidy to low end of market and rent geared to income.
Many people are surprised to learn that they may be eligible to rent low end of market homes from Ballenas. According to BC Housing (2024), those eligible for low end of market rentals have annual household incomes below $84,780 for a studio or one-bedroom home, and below $134,140 for two or more bedrooms. Everyone looking to rent in Nanaimo, Parksville or Campbell River is invited to complete an application form with Ballenas to see if they qualify, and if they do, it means they can save money on rent.
Ballenas welcomes donations and can provide charitable tax receipts as a registered society. The community’s generosity directly supports Ballenas’ mission to develop and operate well-maintained housing for people with low to moderate income, while promoting inclusive and diverse communities.
For those would like to donate to Ballenas Housing Society’s capital or operating efforts (e.g. subsidized meal programs for residents), they can click here: