April 24, 2024 – Lytton First Nation, British Columbia – Indigenous Services Canada
The federal government recently delivered Budget 2024: Justice for every generation.
Today, Canada’s Minister of Indigenous Services, the Honorable Patty Hajdu, visited Lytton First Nation to meet with community leaders to announce $1.3 million through the Housing Accelerator Fund, Budget 2024 housing investments and highlight $119 million in community reconstruction efforts.
Budget 2024 takes bold steps to build more housing:
Budget 2024 plans to accelerate construction of more housing for Canadians across the country and Indigenous people living both on and off reserve. The most effective way to make home prices more affordable is to increase supply, and quickly. It sets out a strategy to unlock 3.87 million new homes by 2031. The new Budget 2024 housing investments and new measures include:
- $918 million in Indigenous Housing and Community Infrastructure to reduce housing and infrastructure gaps in Indigenous communities. This is in addition to the $5 billion already available to communities in 2024-25.
- We are taking a distinction-based approach, distributing funds in the form of $426 million to on-reserve First Nations, $370 million to Inuit communities, $62 million to Self-Governing and Modern Treaty First Nations, and $60 million to dollars for Métis communities.
- $400 million will be added to the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), helping to accelerate the construction of 12,000 new homes over the next three years.
- $15 billion in new loans awarded through the Apartment Construction Loan Program
Lytton First Nation receives $1.3 million to accelerate construction of 175 new homes:
Lytton First Nation is a great example of how community leadership is using the Housing Accelerator Fund to quickly build more homes for their members.
Today, Lytton First Nation and Minister Hajdu, on behalf of the Honorable Sean Fraser, Canada’s Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities, announced $1.3 million through the Housing Accelerator Fund. This financing agreement will accelerate construction of 20 housing units over the next three years and spur construction of more than 175 homes over the next decade. Within this agreement, community leadership has engagement initiatives, including a program to incentivize the construction of new units on existing properties and the development of new affordable, energy-efficient, and fire-resistant housing designs.
Today’s announcement complements the collaborative effort of Lytton First Nation, the Nlaka’pamux Nation Tribal Council, Indigenous Services Canada and the Province of British Columbia to recover from the devastating wildfires in 2021 and 2022. Until April 2024 , ISC has committed more than $119 million. in funding for community reconstruction and recovery efforts. This includes:
- $43.3 million to replace the 39 reserve units lost in the 2021 fire.
- $56.7 million for temporary housing, temporary community buildings, evacuee support, recovery personnel, renovations to 11 homes and debris removal.
- $17.6 million for 28 additional homes for Nlaka’pamux members who lived in Lytton Village at the time of the 2021 fire and wish to return to Lytton First Nation.
- More than $577,000 in Emergency Management Assistance Program funding for the First Nation to establish a pilot project to increase capacity, resources and preparedness against fire risks.