Six reserves share $16M for housing

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This article was published 17/05/2021 (1067 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Six Manitoba reserves are set to get 80 affordable housing units by the end of the year.

Liberal cabinet minister Dan Vandal announced $16.6 million Tuesday for projects on First Nations reserves under a pandemic program that converts unused or dilapidated buildings into permanent housing.

“The unfortunate reality is that there is a need everywhere: in cities, on-reserve, in the north and rural areas,” said Vandal.

“There’s been a significant underfunding for a long, long time.”

The units include a transitional home for young parents as well as teens who will age-out as foster kids at the fly-in Little Grand Rapids reserve.

In Norway House, 28 housing units will be created out of shipping containers, which will have solar panels.

Peguis will get an 18-unit, two-bedroom apartment complex.

The funding is a drop in the bucket compared with the huge need on reserves. Peguis Chief Glen Hudson said his community has a waiting list for housing of 800 people.

“This announcement certainly helps us address this very important need. But also, this pandemic exacerbates the need for housing overall,” said Hudson.

The federal Liberals say they are trying to ramp up the pace of the national housing strategy, a decade-long plan that was launched in 2017.

It involves creating housing within months, to deal with the rise in homelessness during the pandemic.

Manitoba reserves have struggled to contain COVID-19 outbreaks due to cramped houses in which people from multiple generations live.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca