Report shows majority of houses approved by federal initiative haven’t begun being built

The federal government has set aside billions of dollars to quickly build affordable housing across the country. A new document from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation shows ground has yet to be broken on majority of the approved homes.

By Alex Karpa

The federal government has set aside billions of dollars to quickly build affordable housing across the country for the Rapid Housing Initiative, but a new report shows ground has yet to be broken on the majority of approved homes.

The feds offered $2.5 billion during the first two rounds of project funding back in 2020, with the condition that approved units must be built within 12 months in most places, or 18 months in northern and remote communities.

But the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says the majority of approved units have not yet been constructed.

Housing policy expert Carolyn Whitzman says affordable housing projects have faced a number of recent obstacles.

“Construction costs have gone up, there have been supply chain issues related to COVID, there have been labour issues related to COVID, the cost of labour has been going up, the cost of items have been going and there have been concerns raised by many municipalities that the federal government is being very inflexible,” said Whitzman, a professor at the University of Ottawa.

“It is concerning that the CMHC doesn’t really know how many of them have been built.”

Tim Comack from Ventura Developments says they are starting a multi-year project, building 500 units. He says it’s imperative to get these projects underway efficiently due to the high immigration numbers in Winnipeg, especially within the Ukrainian population.

“You see these issues everywhere. If you want to point fingers at the federal government, look at the passport office, right. CMHC is probably experiencing the same labour problems, shortages and interruptions because of COVID, etc.” said Comack.

“I think there’s a lot of desire to do them out there. There’s a lot of impediments and challenges that you face in getting them done.”

Codi Guenther from New Journey Housing in Winnipeg says it’s frustrating to see the slow-moving process of the Rapid Housing Initiative. She says she wants to see more non-market housing built as quickly as possible.

“They don’t have credit references or rental references and they don’t make enough money. We need more non-market housing that will provide good, safe places for newcomers and for anyone to live that is struggling to afford private market rents,” she said.

Ottawa announced its national housing strategy back in 2017, a 10-year plan to build affordable housing to support the middle class.

Whitzman says it was a missed opportunity by the feds not to include the Rapid Housing Initiative in that plan.

“The problem isn’t so much round one, round two, round three, the problem is, why wasn’t the rapid housing initiative part of the strategy to start with and why isn’t it continuing?” she said. “Why does it need a little jolt in every budget?”

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