Deputy CAO Office

The Deputy Chief Administrative Officer provides oversight on priority operations and is primarily responsible for the Housing Office, Capital Building and Major Projects, and Lulu Island Energy Company.

The City of Richmond recognizes that a range of housing choices is essential in creating a diverse, inclusive and livable community in Richmond.

Affordable Housing Strategy

Approved in March 2018, the City of Richmond Affordable Housing Strategy guides the City’s involvement in addressing the affordable housing needs of Richmond residents. The strategy identifies a range of priority groups, including families, seniors, one-person households, persons with disabilities and individuals experiencing homelessness.

The Affordable Housing Strategy 2021 Update provides a high-level summary of what the City and community partners achieved regarding affordable housing in 2021.

The Facilities Services section provides operations and maintenance services for all City facilities. These service areas include preventative maintenance, administering security systems and access controls, providing janitorial services, and supporting energy management initiatives. The Project Development section plans and manages major maintenance and capital improvement programs for the City’s existing facilities and also delivers the annual capital program and major projects.

Capital Buildings Project Development

The Capital Buildings Project Development department provides a corporate service for the City's accommodation needs and is responsible for the planning, design development and construction of both new and existing Community, Corporate and Operations building infrastructure.

This infrastructure includes Community Centres (Arenas, Pools, Libraries, Theatres, Heritage and Museums); Community Safety Buildings (Police, Courts and Fire Rescue); Corporate (City Hall, Public Works Yard); and Operations (Workshops, Garage, Stores, Pump Stations).

Facility Services

The Facility Services section administers all maintenance services for all 170(+) City owned buildings, rental properties and 50(+) rental houses. In addition to all planned maintenance and demand maintenance requests, this section also administers the facility energy management program, janitorial support, fire life safety systems, as well as building and staff security systems.

District energy utilities are systems that centralize energy production for space and water heating and, in Richmond’s case, to service mainly residential and commercial customers. The City currently operates the Alexandra District Energy Utility (ADEU) in the West Cambie neighbourhood. Using heat pumps and a network of vertical pipe loops, ADEU extracts thermal energy (heat) from the ground to supply customers with heat for their homes or businesses. During the summer, the energy flow is reversed and heat is pumped into the ground to cool homes. The City is currently investigating other areas for district energy system expansion, mainly in the City Centre area.