METRO VANCOUVER -- A non-profit agency running a women’s shelter in Richmond says its innovative model can save neighbourhoods from the blight of vacant homes while putting a roof over the heads of those in need.

Over the last two years, Chimo Community Services has taken 19 women fleeing domestic violence or men living on the streets and found them short-term rentals at four houses slated for demolition. Two developers have offered up homes that can be lived in for at least six months, sometimes longer than a year, while the city processes their applications to rezone and build townhomes on the properties.

The idea was first sprung at the start of last year when Balandra Development’s owner Clive Alladin told Chimo outreach worker Neena Randhawa about the five-bedroom house that was about to sit empty for the next year.

At the time, Randhawa was trying to move an Urdu-speaking woman and her four kids out of Chimo Community Services’ Nova House shelter, which only has 10 short-term beds for women and their children.

“We had a really hard time finding a basement suite for four kids — and Richmond’s very, very expensive,” Randhawa recalls. “For someone who’s low income and on income assistance, they only get $375 for their shelter portion — there’s no way you’re going to find anything in Richmond for that amount.

“She was in tears. Because the kids went to school in Richmond, we didn’t want to uproot her from her community and the support system she’s already involved in and then send her all the way to Langley or Port Coquitlam or something like that.”

With a free place to stay for the next year, the woman was able to learn to drive, apply for disability benefits and eventually secure more permanent social housing for herself and her four kids, who are all under the age of 12. A second home donated by Alladin housed six homeless women for six months, during which time Randhawa and Chimo helped them deal with their various issues.

“For you and me, six months we go, ‘What? Six months? That’s not enough.’ But for someone on the street or sleeping in their car, six months is a lot of time,” Randhawa says. “It’s just that with comfort their mental health became stable.

“They were able to get things in place, have a bank account, they were able to save sometimes.”

Alladin says he usually has one or two homes sitting empty as he waits for city rezoning permits to tear them down and build larger townhomes. During this time developers have to worry about “headaches” like maintaining the lawn, securing the property from squatters and keeping a constant eye out for vandals.

It’s a “travesty” and “a waste of an excellent resource” to have homes like his sit empty, while having tenants during this period are a “no-brainer,” he says.

“These buildings can be used right up until the time they need to be demolished,” Alladin says. “It’s a no brainer — there’s a need and there’s a facility — all you need to do is put them together.”