HEALTH

HEALTH / REAL ESTATE After survival, comfort is key during a heat wave

by Martin Dunphy

With the summer’s first serious heat wave come and gone, there was no lack of people offering essential medical advice about dehydration, heat stroke, and the need to avoid lengthy exposure to the sun.

This is important information, especially when it comes to the most vulnerable segments of our population: seniors, the very young, all pets and other animals, and anyone incapable of fully looking after themselves. Too many B.C. seniors fell victim to the heat during the recent extreme heat wave.

Other than drinking plenty of water, taking cooling baths or showers, and staying out of the sun, are there any other practical steps you can take to keep chill?

Statistics Canada says that 60 percent of all Canadian households had some type of air conditioning in 2017.

Of those with air conditioning, 70 percent (42 percent of total homes) had central air conditioning. Those with “stand-alone” air conditioning (presumably, fans or window units) made up the other 30 percent of homes “with” (18 percent of total homes).

West Coast households (including the Pacific Northwest in the U.S.) tend to have fewer air-conditioning units because of less seasonal variation in temperatures, a generally cooler climate, and less humidity.

So, if you live in one of the many households without air conditioning, are there ways that people have, historically, kept their cool that can be used today, maybe in conjunction with some simple modern mechanical/electrical means?

So glad you asked. 1. Fans will not cool down rooms, but they are good at cooling down people who sit in their air-movement path. A very old trick is

Fans are good things to have during extreme heat, especially when used with cold, wet cloths or a big bowl of ice. Also, don’t knock frozen face cloths. Photo by Delaney Van/Unsplash. to put some ice in a pan or bowl in front of the fan. It really works (until the ice melts). 2. You can also place pans of water on windowsills if there is any breeze, especially at night. 3. A common complaint is being unable to sleep. Definitely have a fan running, to start. But also use sheets and pajamas (if you’re not already a night commando) made of natural, breathable fibres, i.e., cotton, to stay cooler and comfortable. Damp sheets work, too. Spritz with cold water just before sleep. Also, many people swear by putting sheets in the freezer prior to retiring for the night. (Another tip is to put a damp facecloth in the freezer after fashioning it in a “U” shape; after it becomes frozen, put it on the back of your neck.) 4. Keep doors and windows open to catch any kind of breeze and to get a “draft” going through a structure (if you are lucky enough to live somewhere you are able to do so, and keeping in mind personal security). But keep windows closed during the heat of the day if the outside is hotter than the inside and there is no breeze. Keep your shades down or curtains closed on very hot days, especially sun-facing windows (open a tiny bit at the bottom for some circulation of air). 5. Stay in the coolest part of a house or apartment, and don’t cook meals that require being over a hot stove or using the oven. Also, other appliances, especially large ones, generate heat. Keep washer and dryer use to a minimum, and even turn off lightbulbs and lamps if not needed. They all contribute to the heat load. 6. Eat leafy greens and melon. They are easy to digest and are more than 90 percent water, besides being good for you. Cool salads, cold cuts, and cheeses are the way to go, and no very salty foods. (Paradoxically, eating very cold things like ice cream, though temporarily refreshing, causes your body to protectively increase its internal temperature to compensate for what it detects as a sudden cooling. Fat and protein also cause warming during digestion.) Also, though a cold beer feels cooling, alcohol is a diuretic and can dehydrate you if too much is consumed. To a lesser degree, the same goes for coffee and tea, though frequent sips of hot tea can induce sweating, which is the body’s natural way to keep cool via evaporation. Ask the Tuaregs and Bedouins; they’ve been doing it for many centuries. 7. Fill your hot-water bottle with cold water or freeze it, then place wherever needed most. And wear a bathing suit indoors. 8. Going back to the first two items, you can drape a face cloth or small towel that has been wrung out with cold water over your fan covering to distribute cool air around a room, and hanging a wet sheet in a doorway and in front of an open window, especially with any breeze, can help cool down a room (otherwise known as the Egyptian method). 9. If you have a ceiling fan and can set it to rotate counterclockwise, do so. It will force air down toward you, not suck it upward. Similarly, exhaust fans in your bathroom and over the stove will help draw hot air out of living quarters (and the heat generated by the small motors is expelled as well). 10. If you have a basement with a comfortable area in which to relax, do so. Hot air rises, as anyone with an attic can testify. Bring your mattress down there, if possible.

Of course, you can also take frequent cold soaks in a bathtub during the day, go somewhere (supermarket, movie theatre, or shopping mall) with air conditioning, or swim in the ocean or a cool river (being very careful around currents, especially with children). Also, always remember to regularly check on seniors living alone. g

Underground Yaletown parking spot sells for $38K

by Carlito Pablo

Yes, folks, they sell anything with square footage in Vancouver, from homes to storage lockers to parking stalls. And as the Straight reported at the start of this year, the least pricey deals made in 2020 did not involve houses but storage spaces and parking spots.

In fact, one car stall in Yaletown was recently sold for $38,250.

Parking spot number 33 at 1233 Pacific Boulevard got sold on June 8, 2021, after spending 29 days on the market.

This may be an indication that there is demand for parking spots downtown.

However, the final selling price of $38,250 was below both the asking price, $39,500, and the stall’s 2021 assessed value of $45,900.

The 124-square-foot spot is good for a small car. The adjacent parking stall, number 34, previously sold on April 30 this year.

Slightly bigger at 146 square feet, the space went for $41,500.

The selling price was below the asking price of $43,000 and the 2021 assessed value of $45,900. Parking stall number 34 spent only four days in the market before a purchaser picked it up.

The 1233 Pacific Boulevard strata does not require buyers to live in the building. However, they are required to pay a monthly maintenance fee of $47.20. Real-estate information site Zealty.ca tracked the two transactions. g

REAL ESTATE Shared equity can make homes more affordable

by Carlito Pablo

A formula limits the selling price at Phoenix Society’s Rising Sun Villas housing project so as to make it easier for new buyers to jump into the market, according to CEO Keir Macdonald.

Homeownership creates wealth. With rising prices, property owners can pretty much sit back and watch their equity grow.

It’s a system that produces winners but leaves others behind.

As Keir Macdonald observes, “The property market today has just become an absolute windfall for people fortunate enough to be in it.”

Macdonald is the CEO of the Phoenix Society, a charitable organization that helps low-income people dealing with addictions. Founded as a nonprofit in 1989, the organization provides a range of services, from recovery programs to transitional housing and homeownership.

When Macdonald spoke to the Straight by phone, he said that Phoenix Society was arranging the sale of one of its condo units.

The single-occupancy property is one of 23 affordable-homeownership units at the group’s 72-unit Rising Sun Villas development in Surrey.

“We’re in the process of a sale right now of $120,000, which is unheard of,” Macdonald said.

If an equivalent unit were bought elsewhere in today’s market, the CEO said, it would easily fetch between $300,000 and $400,000.

Macdonald said that a $120,000 price is possible because of the shared-equity model that was adopted in the project.

Rising Sun is a six-storey development, with its two upper floors devoted to homeownership units. The lower floors are used for transitional and supportive housing.

Under the shared-equity model, a purchaser who eventually sells walks away with only a percentage of the increase in market value of the property.

“We’re largely preserving the affordability for the next in line,” Macdonald said.

How it works is that the buyer and Phoenix Society share the title. A resale framework limits the maximum resale price. The organization buys the unit or arranges the purchase by a qualified individual.

At Rising Sun, the resale price is the sum of the original purchase price plus 25 percent of the value appreciation (which goes to the seller) and a one percent fee.

A background paper prepared by Phoenix Society shows the math for a unit with an original purchase price of $117,000.

The paper assumes that at the time of the purchase, the fair market value of the same property was $128,000. At the time it was resold, the market value has increased to $162,000.

The difference between the current and previous market values is $34,000. This means that the seller’s share, 25 percent, of the appreciation is $8,500.

Put together $117,000 and $8,500, and this comes to $125,500. Next, add the one percent fee by Phoenix Society, or $1,255. This results in a maximum selling price of $126,755, which is not far from the original price of $117,000.

Macdonald said that such an “exit formula” has to be in place, otherwise it would become “impossible for people to buy in affordable levels thereafter”.

Without this resale framework that preserves gains in the units, affordability is limited only as a “one-time benefit”.

Macdonald, who became the Phoenix Society CEO in 2018, credited the founders of the organization, Michael and Ann Wilson, for their vision.

He also said that affordable homeownership became a reality because of partnerships with Vancity credit union, the City of Surrey, B.C. Housing, and the federal government.

Online, Vancity describes the affordable-homeownership component of Rising Sun as the first shared-equity development in the province.

“In many ways, it was a social-policy experiment,” Macdonald said.

Macdonald said Phoenix Society wanted to prove that homeownership was “possible for marginalized populations or people no one thought had the opportunity or the ability to own their own homes”.

He said most of the original purchasers are still at Rising Sun, and only a few have moved on.

The person who recently sold was in a relationship. “They wanted to buy something bigger that’s suited to their needs,” Macdonald said.

For the residents, the executive noted that their monthly mortgage payment plus maintenance fees come to only about $800 a month. “They’re really paying, in some cases, half of what you’d pay for rent for a one-bedroom, for instance, in Surrey,” Macdonald said.

In June this year, Statistics Canada reported that the average selling price of a home increased by 87 percent during the past decade. This has resulted in a similar increase in the average minimum down payment.

In the same report, the federal agency noted that because of rising home prices, Canadians who owned their homes collectively added more than $730 billion to their net worth in the first quarter of 2021.

Meanwhile, renters saw their net worth increase by only about $43 billion.

“On a per household basis, the average owner-occupied household increased their net worth by approximately $73,000, while the average renter household’s net worth rose by about $8,000,” Statistics Canada reported.

Macdonald said that Phoenix Society’s experiment can be replicated.

He said the key lies in retaining most of the equity in the home in order to sustain affordability in the long run. g

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