Regina set to get $7.8M for permanent affordable housing, city to pitch in $1M

Regina is going to be getting federal funding to help house people struggling with homelessness.

The federal government introduced the Rapid Housing Initiative in the 2021 budgetand selected some cities to receive funding to build new places for people who face the biggest barriers to housing.

The funding, administered by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Commission, is meant to create at least 29 new "affordable housing units" in the city for the next 20 years and comes with a few conditions.

The city needs to find a non-profit to operate the homes. Administration also recommendedallocating $1 million from the city for non-eligible capital costs, such as furnishings.

Administration needs to submit a proposal by Aug. 31 and the project must be delivered within one year. City council voted unanimously on Wednesday to submit a proposal and support the initiative.

Regina council debated where the $1 million should come from. Administration proposed that it comes from the social development reserve.

Coun.Andrew Stevens raised concerns about how it would function, as the city had allocated $1 million for the supportive housing grant to provide 20 spots earlier this year.Stevens said the gap in the community is providing operation support to people staying in those homes.

"We don't need more capital," Stevens said at the Aug. 11 meeting. "That million dollars for operational support was not easy to get and I think it will disappear really quickly in the shuffle over the years."

Stevens proposed the city support both projects by taking the $1 million for the Rapid Housing Initiative from the general fund reserve. City administration said the general fund reserve is low.

Administration said this new initiative is still following the intention of the permanent housing support grant, but will bring a building alongside the operating grant rather than the non-profit bringing a building with them.

A non-profit will still be selected to provide support needed to tenants of the new units. Coun. Lori Bresciani said this is why the social development reserve is there.

"This is not a raid on the housing-first funding and I think we'd make a big mistake on our reserve funding policy," agreed Coun. Bob Hawkins at the meeting.

The amendment calling for the $1 million to come from the general reserve fund failed, with only Stevens and Couns.Cheryl Stadnichuk, Dan LeBlanc and Landon Mohl in favour. Instead, it will come from thesocial development reserve as administration proposed.