SSSBC board profile: Kirk Robinson

When Kirk Robinson joined PC Urban Properties as its senior vice president of development three years ago, he inherited a project that was just getting underway in New Westminster: Uptown West. PC Urban had committed to including 10 below-market housing units that would be operated by a local non-profit group in the building. One of Kirk’s first tasks was to identify who that non-profit partner would be.

“I had a list of organizations from the City of New Westminster,” recalled Kirk. “I started calling everyone on the list and eventually connected with Alison [Silgardo, SSSBC’s CEO]. We exchanged some emails, and I recommended SSSBC as a good group to work with.”

That was the beginning of a great relationship that recently saw Kirk join our board of directors as its treasurer.

“The main thing I’m hoping to accomplish by being on the board is to increase the amount of below-market housing that is allocated to SSSBC,” said Kirk. “That’s in my scope of influence to some extent so that’s really what I’ll be focusing on.”

In an attempt to address the housing crisis, many municipalities in Metro Vancouver now require developers to allocate 20 per cent of units in new builds to below-market housing. That creates a great opportunity for groups like SSSBC, which is always on the lookout for affordable housing for vulnerable seniors. PC Urban, for instance, has earmarked SSSBC for units in three other projects that are working their way toward approvals.

Kirk also points to the federal government’s new Build Canada Homes program that is expected to support projects that deliver a significant number of affordable housing units and to expand the supply of housing run by non-profit organizations.

“Essentially the government has to get into the housing game,” said Kirk, for housing in Canada to become affordable.

PC Urban’s Uptown West project is on track to open in late 2025/early 2026. It is the first purpose-built rental housing in the Uptown West neighbourhood in perhaps a decade or more. The 10 units set aside for SSSBC mark the first time PC Urban has included a non-market component in one of its projects.

“It’s a good test case for us to understand exactly how we can work together,” added Kirk. “Contributing to the communities we build in is an important part of our company’s philosophy. It’s actually been easy working with SSSBC and that’s what I love about it. There’s an organization that has an obvious need. That need is way beyond what we can provide right now, but I’m hopeful as part of the board and just being a supporter of SSSBC that I’ll get the word out to the development community so the society can get access to more non-market units.”

Like many people, Kirk was unaware of how dire the housing situation is for seniors.

“I didn’t really have a clue prior to engaging with Alison and the organization,” he said. “That’s another thing I’d like to focus on in my work with the board. I’d like to see us create more awareness about the large number of seniors who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in our province. Before I started working with SSSBC I’d never thought about that and I was shocked to learn how high those percentages are in some communities. I see that as a failure as a country and as a society. So, I think the first step is awareness and the second step is getting people interested in resolving the issue as best we can.”