Members of North Battleford council were in for a surprise when they got back a report on the progress of Haven-4-Eight.
Haven-4-Eight is the new rooming house located at 1132 98th Street which currently houses eight individuals, with a goal to address homelessness issues in the city. The project was opened in 2019.
What was unexpected in that update was a request from Liana Clinton, on behalf of the organization, for relief on property taxes.
“Commercial property taxes are our main concern and this issue, if not resolved soon, will result in the catastrophic failure and closure of Haven-4-Eight,” she stated in correspondence to the city.
The issue is that the Haven-4-Eight property and an empty parking lot next to it are being charged commercial property taxes instead of residential property taxes.
That has exceeded their budgeted amount for property taxes by thousands of dollars, a budget based on “residential property taxes applied to similar Saskatchewan Housing Corporation residences.”
Councillor Len Taylor had initially requested the update from Haven-4-Eight to find out how things were going there. “I really didn’t fully expect a response like we got where there’s a request for additional support or assistance from the city.”
Nevertheless, Taylor said he was “glad to know this,” because he was “not aware of the financial challenges that were being faced regarding taxes on the property.” He went on to express support for helping the organization.
It was his understanding there had been some negotiations with the organization over the past few months, and one of the main issues had to do with the empty lot next to the facility. Taylor said he would be willing to forego taxes for the empty lot, and look at whether they were eligible for something other than a commercial tax rate.
City officials confirmed there have been recent talks to try and find a resolution. Director of finance Steve Brown said he had spoken to Clinton and suggested they take up an assessment appeal with SAMA. If it did fail, his direction was to bring it back to council which has the full authority to abate back the taxes.
Mayor Ryan Bater suggested administration come up with options for what to do and city manager Randy Patrick said those would come back at a future meeting. Patrick added there wasn’t a rush since taxes weren’t due now until the end of August.
