Earlier today, an announcement was made at Yellowknife’s Greenstone Building that the federal government will be investing $19 million towards the third phase of the Rapid Housing Initiative’s Projrect Stream, which will be building 50 new homes for indigenous people across the Northwest Territories.
Michael McLeod, Member of Parliament for the Northwest Territories, made the announcement alongside the Honourable Lucy Kuptana, Minister Responsible for Housing Northwest Territories and Grand Chief Jackson Lafferty of Tłı̨chǫ Nation.
“Our government has been very passionate about housing, and I know that holds true for everyone here. We all share the same goals of ensuring that everyone across the country, especially here in the Northwest Territories, has safe and affordable housing.”
The target of this funding will be to provide new homes to various communities across the NWT, including Tłı̨chǫ communities of Wekweètì, Gamètì, Whatì, and Behchokò, Acho Dene Koe First Nation in Fort Liard, Nahanni Butte Dene Band, and Pehdzeh Ki First Nation.
“And why rapid housing? Because it’s a program that’s really been working for us. It’s been successful, and has succeeded with the targets that we set. We had initially anticipated that seventy-five-hundred units would be created, but in fact it’s created well over ten-thousand units, and that’s after the first two rounds.”
This third round of the program is being assisted by an additional investment of $1.5 Billion through RHI, which brings the program’s total to $4 billion on a national level. The additional funding for the third round of RHI is divided into two streams: $1 billion through the Projects Stream and $500 million towards the Cities Stream. This additional investment will quickly create more new units of permanent affordable housing across the country for those in severe housing need, or those experiencing, or at imminent risk of homelessness.
This round is expected to build over 5,200 homes across Canada.
