Alberta provides $75 million to housing providers: Nixon

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To help low-income housing providers build more housing and combat rising costs, the Alberta government will provide $75 million to four dozen agencies in 2024-25, a cabinet minister announced Tuesday. provincial.

Jason Nixon, minister of seniors, community and social services, said the funding marks a 40 per cent increase, or $21 million, over last year’s budget.

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Nixon told Postmedia the funding will subsidize 48 community housing providers and help house approximately 110,000 Albertans in 60,000 government-supported units.

“This specifically is to be able to ensure that housing providers that offer low-income housing can keep up with the inflationary market that they find themselves in,” he said.

The funds will ensure that Alberta housing operators “can continue to be able to manage the increased expenses that we are seeing, from higher utility costs, higher staff costs, impacts of the carbon tax and other components like that,” he added Nixon.

The new funding does not include the Alberta rent supplements already provided to these agencies, he noted.

“We know we need to be able to make sure we maintain what we have and they’re going to need to be able to pay their bills to do that.”

Of the $75 million, Calgary-based organizations will receive $20.4 million by calendar year 2024, according to Nixon. He said most of the funds will be distributed this year and some will be carried forward to 2025.

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“Frankly, they’re not even in the equation.”

Tuesday’s announcement comes after a series of pre-budget announcements from the federal government related to housing, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise last week to “solve the housing crisis” by unlock 3.87 million new homes by 2031.

This followed Trudeau’s announcement of a new $1.5 billion Canada Rent Protection Fund and a $500 million low-cost loan program to build housing using “innovative” techniques such as modular construction.

Criticizing those commitments as a federal intrusion into provincial jurisdiction, Premier Danielle Smith introduced Bill 18 – Protection of Provincial Priorities in the legislature last week. If passed, the legislation would require the federal government to receive permission from the province before reviewing, expanding or entering into funding agreements with Alberta municipalities, universities or other “provincial entities.”

Nixon denied Tuesday’s announcement was an example of sticking it to the federal government, noting the funding was already included in Alberta’s 2024 budget, which was tabled in late February.

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“This is something we intended to do, not because of the feds,” he said. “Frankly, they’re not even in the equation. “This demonstrates that the Alberta government continues to invest significantly in housing and will continue to do so.”

However, Nixon added that since the introduction of Bill 18, federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser has resumed communication with the Alberta government.

“We’re excited to be able to reach an agreement with the federal government,” Nixon said. “Minister Fraser is back at the table and is prepared to negotiate with the province on housing.”

The federal government’s 2024 budget will be presented later today.

More to come…

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