Officials request feds ‘pony up Alberta’s cash’ for affordable housing
Global News
The calls come as only six of 39 affordable housing projects in Alberta received federal dollars in the latest funding round from the Rapid Housing Initiative
Alberta is calling on the feds for more funding as desperation seeps in around the affordable housing crisis plaguing the province — particularly in the two major cities.
The calls come on the heels of the latest round of funding for the federal government’s Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI), which is meant to fund permanent affordable housing units for vulnerable people and populations across the country.
According to provincial and municipal officials, only six of the 39 affordable housing projects included in Alberta’s application will receive funding.
In a joint letter to the federal minister Tuesday, Minister Jason Nixon, Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi and Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said the 200 units funded for Alberta represents less than four per cent of the 5,200 housing units funded through the initiative — a “disproportionate result” they find “very troubling.”
“The total funding of $38 million is only 2.5 per cent of the funding that’s available,” Gondek said Tuesday. “We’re the fourth-largest province, we have 12 per cent of the population, and we’re just not seeing that money come back to us.”
Alberta’s request to the feds is a reconsideration of the funding, with $114 million needed for the remaining 33 projects on the province’s application.
“We have projects ready to go right now to help the most vulnerable in Alberta and we expect the federal government to pony up Alberta’s cash that we’re owed for those projects,” Nixon told reporters in Calgary.
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