If you’re the owner of Vancouver heritage house that could use a bit of TLC but are struggling to fund the project, you could be in luck.
The Vancouver Heritage Foundation (VHF), which has been offering maintenance and restoration grants to owners of heritage buildings since 1999, has announced an increase in its grant funding for individual owners of heritage homes for restoration projects.
The total amount of funding available has not been publicized, but the VHF is encouraging anyone planning a heritage restoration or maintenance project to contact the foundation and find out more.
Qualified projects can include exterior painting with historically accurate colours, restoring exterior character elements and creating conservation reports to assess the current condition and guide the restoration and maintenance of the building. The VHF can also help to get a property listed on Vancouver’s Heritage Register.
The types of grants available are:
- True Colours: Learn your heritage buildings’ original colour scheme, select from a Heritage Consultant’s appropriate schemes, then hire an approved company to re-paint with complementary paint provided by Benjamin Moore.
- Restore It: Repair and/or restore original exterior elements of a heritage building.
- House Call: Funding towards an on-site consultation and the creation of a conservation report for a heritage-listed building.
- Get on the Register: Financial assistance towards research and documentation needed to apply to add a building to the City of Vancouver Heritage Register.
In previous years, recipients have included many private homes, strata-owned and co-op residential buildings, a church, the Japanese Canadian War Memorial and the Hollywood Theatre.
The foundation also announced that it still has space in the Heritage Energy Retrofit Grant pilot program, where qualified homeowners can receive up to $3,000 for retrofits resulting in greenhouse gas reductions (open to pre-1940s homes as well as those listed on the Vancouver Heritage Register).
To find out more about VHF’s grant program visit www.vancouverheritagefoundation.org/get-a-grant or call 604-264-9642.
The deadline for 2016 applications is February 1, 2016 at 5pm.
