Vancity Credit Union is offering interest-free seven-year loans to its members who are upgrading their homes to house Syrian refugees.

The Ready to Rent loans, for up to $50,000 to prepare a suite or room, are available to Vancity members who house a refugee or refugee family for at least a year.

The loans are part of Vancity’s commitment of financial supports to help some of the 3,000 Syrian refugees who are expected to move to B.C. over the next few months.

“There’s quite a heightened amount of awareness and support and curiosity about what individual families might do to support (refugee) families coming into our community,” said Vancity president and CEO Tamara Vrooman in an interview on Tuesday, noting that up to 100 members have already indicated interest in the program.

“We also have members who are not-for-profit agencies. We have churches that are members. So if an organization came forward as a member and met the conditions of the loan, we’d certainly consider financing them as well.”

The credit union, which has a history of supporting low-income people, the marginalized and refugees, is ramping up some of the services it provides to accommodate the refugees.

Besides the interest-free loans, Vancity is offering a series of new initiatives to add to the supports it has provided government-assisted refugees in B.C. for nearly 20 years. They include the opening of bank accounts within the first two weeks of settlement, and providing small loans to help tradespeople, service workers and professionals get back to work in Canada.

As well, Vancity will match every dollar donated to the Vancity Humanitarian Fund (used for the Syrian Emergency Relief Fund) up to a maximum of $125,000, and provide five new processing branches to assist refugees.

As well, Vrooman noted that Vancity will waive interest payments for travel costs for all refugees, not just the 25,000 Syrian refugees who the federal government is waiving interest payments for.

Vrooman said that Vancity’s experience supporting refugees and immigrants allowed it “to respond to an extraordinary situation for our community as well as for our country.”

She said the program announced Tuesday won’t impact other members’ rates or fees.

Vancity also released a report Tuesday saying that B.C.-bound Syrian refugees would boost the local economy by $563 million over the next 20 years.

The report, From Crisis to Community: Syrian Refugees and the B.C. Economy, found that immigrants tend to strengthen economies within their new communities, since they often purchase goods and services within their local community networks. Other findings include: Immigrants across Canada have a history of helping to grow their local economies; immigrants tend to be highly entrepreneurial, and about 30 per cent are more likely to start a business than non-immigrants; refugees report higher rates of self-employment than both other immigrants and people born in Canada.

“The faster (they become) an active and engaged part of our community, the more quickly they start to participate in the labour force and pay taxes and buy goods and all that kind of stuff,” said Vrooman.

bmorton@vancouversun.com

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