Accelerate Okanagansa国际传媒檚 most recent hackathon brought 40 people together at Kelownasa国际传媒檚 Innovation Centre to tackle the question sa国际传媒楬ow might we mitigate the stressors surrounding affordable housing in the Okanagan Valley?sa国际传媒�
On Thursday, June 23 people from all backgrounds were split into a number of teams to compete for the best solution.
Jan Rutgers, founder of Vestabul Design, was on the winning team Financial Freedom which built an idea for The Village App.
sa国际传媒淥ur original thought was that we wanted to be able to build an app that would allow a first-time homeowner or first-time home buyer to be able to save for a down payment,sa国际传媒� Rutgers said. sa国际传媒淥ur theories were that a lot of 20 to 30-year-olds coming out of high school, just getting started in life, really have not given good budgeting, itsa国际传媒檚 not something thatsa国际传媒檚 taught in schools and how could we develop an app that would motivate them to save for a down payment.sa国际传媒�
Rutgers said the team switched course to look at paying the first monthsa国际传媒檚 rent and a security deposit.
sa国际传媒淎 single-family home in Kelowna is over $1.1 millionsa国际传媒� by the time we did the math on a $500,000 purchase of a first-time residence and you need $25,000 minimum for a 5 per cent down payment, we saw that it was unrealistic to expect that this age group would be able to save $25,000 in a year.sa国际传媒�
The app is meant to encourage users to save over the course of a year.
Rutgers said the proposed format would be saving $2 in the first week and increase the amount by $2 each week for 52 weeks.
In one year the total saved would be $2,756, Rutgers said, sa国际传媒渨hich would be the $850 needed for a security deposit and the $1,700 for the average first monthsa国际传媒檚 rent.sa国际传媒�
As the winning team, Financial Freedom was offered mentorship through Accelerate Okanagan, but Rutgers said they wonsa国际传媒檛 be completing or launching the app.
sa国际传媒淚 think it would be great for somebody to jump on board and take it on. I donsa国际传媒檛 see five complete strangers jumping in and putting that investment in to do it, but I could see that maybe it is something that somebody sees it as a great idea.sa国际传媒�
Previous hackathon events in Kelowna have tackled questions around cancer care, eliminating waste, and more.
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brittany.webster@blackpress.ca
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