PM unveils $40-billion housing strategy, includes building 100,000 affordable units
Posted Nov 22, 2017 04:30:33 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Liberals will create a new housing benefit to go directly to low-income tenants, spend billions to repair existing affordable housing units and find a way to build 100-thousand more units as part of its housing strategy.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled the plan in Toronto today, saying housing rights are human rights.
The government says the portable housing benefit could help 300-thousand households cumulatively between 2021 — when the money is to start flowing — and 2028.
A new financing program will be created for housing providers to help them repair aging units and use their assets to leverage additional cash to build new apartments and homes.
The 15.9-billion-dollar housing fund will create 60-thousand new affordable housing units, repair 240-thousand more through grants and loans and prioritize mixed-income developments.
The government also plans to create a federal housing advocate and legislate a right to housing, which will require regular reports to Parliament on federal efforts to ease the housing burden for hundreds of thousands of families.
Although the Liberals are touting some 40-billion in spending over the next decade, the math includes almost 10-billion in planned spending, repurposes 4.8-billion and then relies heavily on provinces and territories adding billions in matching funds.
Federal funds won’t start to flow until next April.
