They lived for years with mushrooms, two-by-fours propping walkways and condemned balconies. But last month, members of the Paloma Housing Co-op near Commercial Drive celebrated their co-op’s 25th anniversary and the restoration of their homes.

“It feels good. The co-op came together,” said Michael Springate, a resident of six years. “There’s a sense of having proven ourselves as a community.”

The co-op, which consists of 44 units in two complexes at 1580 and 1638 East Third Ave., was built under a federal housing program in 1984 on land leased from the city. Nearly half of the members receive subsidies for their monthly housing charges.

Like many multi-unit residential buildings in Vancouver, serious building envelope problems had developed at the co-op by the mid 1990s. Paloma was one of nearly 70 leaky housing co-ops in B.C. representing 3,800 homes.

It was also one of the most extreme cases. At one point, the co-op members were close to losing their homes, according to the Co-operative Housing Federation of B.C. Springate’s family of four moved into the co-op in 2005, and they were told remediation was underway. But by the end of 2005, financing negotiations had fallen apart. Springate says construction estimates were out of whack. Darren Kitchen, director of government relations for the provincial Co-operative Housing Federation, said Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or CMHC, was dubious about granting the co-op a 35-year mortgage extension. But the extension was needed because of the high cost of replacing the roof and building envelope.

In 2006, a worker stepped through a rotting walkway in the co-op, triggering emergency shoring and repairs.

Springate, a writer, became head of the remediation committee. “There’s a certain, for lack of a better word, solidarity that develops when you see people in your community who you know would have an extremely hard time to try to find something that’s even remotely central,” he said, referring to low-income families and residents in wheelchairs who occupy the co-op’s accessible suites. At the end of 2007, the city agreed to extend the co-op’s lease 20 years to 2044, so the co-op could refinance its mortgage to cover the construction and interest costs of $6 million. The co-op agreed that when its operating agreement with CMHC ends, it will continue to subsidize at least 11 of its units.

The Co-operative Housing Federation of B.C. and CHF Canada negotiated with CMHC on the co-op’s behalf. CMHC helped Paloma with grants and mortgage financing and contracted with B.C. Housing to provide technical expertise.

The provincial government provided grants through its Home Owner Protection Office.

But monthly housing charges had to rise for co-op members who pay a $1,000 share to join. Some moved out.

A two-bedroom was $887 in 2009, $942 this year and will be $1,000 in 2013.

Members in subsidized units pay up to 30 per cent of their gross income on housing charges, which were increased where possible.

The bulk of the construction was completed in June.

Kitchen said more than two-thirds of the leaky co-ops across the province have been repaired or are being worked on, with others in the financing or design phase.

crossi@vancourier.com