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The Yukon’s minister responsible for housing says two new partnerships with Ottawa will respond to the urgent housing needs in communities.
“We’re focused on keeping homes affordable, homes built by Yukon Housing,” Scott Kent said Thursday.
Kent and other officials with the territorial and federal governments held a news conference in Whitehorse to announce a total of $350 million toward housing and infrastructure.
The first agreement will see almost $157 million from the federal government’s Build Communities Strong Fund go toward a 10-year partnership to support infrastructure projects related to housing and post-secondary education.
Prime Minister Mark Carney created the fund last year to boost the number of homes across the country.
Some of that money will also go toward health infrastructure funding over three years.
“Investing in health infrastructure is essential to improving access to care for Yukoners,” Yukon Minister of Health and Social Services Brad Cathers said in a written statement.
“This agreement will help us advance health priorities, including expanding hospital capacity and responding to growing pressures in our system.”
The minister responsible for the Yukon Housing Corporation said a number of these new rent-geared-to-income projects are going to be scattered throughout a number of communities. (CBC News)
The second agreement is with the Yukon Housing Corporation (YHC).
The federal government is contributing up to $100 million and the YHC is contributing $93 million to deliver up to 500 new homes.
“This partnership will expand the number of units for the rent-geared-to-income clients as well as for essential workers in our communities,” Kent said.
The governments say the goal is to accelerate delivery and construction timelines while prioritizing Canadian-made materials and products.
Kent, however, was unable to say with certainty whether the YHC would consider using existing infrastructure or vacant lots to achieve that.
“It’s difficult to say until we get those applications in front of us,” he told CBC.
Meanwhile, downtown Whitehorse has lots of land sitting empty at a time when the city needs almost 3,000 more units than it has right now.
The governments didn’t specify where or how fast the homes could be built.
A housing complex under construction in downtown Whitehorse. The territory is building hundreds of new units this year. (Chris Windeyer/CBC)
Suzanne Greening, the executive director of Habitat for Humanity Yukon, attended the news conference. She said she welcomes the investments.
“Housing is essential,” she told CBC.
“You can’t deal with any of the other issues in life unless people have housing that they can afford.”
Greening said many families and single parents are spending more than 50 per cent of their incomes on rent.
The announcement also comes at a time when Safe at Home Society’s most recent statistics reveal that 309 people are currently without a home in Whitehorse — an all-time high for the city.
The governments said the funding will also support the integration of supportive and transitional housing, which will help to address homelessness and provide housing stability for vulnerable people.