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Minister Hussen covers housing in post-budget roundtable

Published April 21, 2021

Screenshot with text "Budget 2021 Round Table with Minister Hussen" and images of participantsIn a post-budget roundtable on housing held Tuesday, the Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development discussed the government’s housing priorities, including several items specific to co-op housing.

The 40-minute session with the Minister was jointly hosted by CHF Canada, the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, the Canadian Housing & Renewal Association and the Canadian Lived Experience Leadership Network. Over 600 participants registered, including many co-op members, housing advocates and service providers.

Former CHF Canada President Nicole Waldron introduced the Q&A portion of the meeting, and current CHF Canada President Tina Stevens asked the Minister about federal support to build more co-op housing: “Very little co-op housing has been developed under the existing Co-Investment Fund,” she wrote, “So I’m seeking to understand how the budget commitments will better enable more co-op housing to be built.”

The Minister cited the renewed Affordable Housing Innovation Fund, which was announced in the budget, as an option to pursue co-op development. He also noted $118 million in the budget to expand the Federal Community Housing Initiative to provide rental assistance to previously excluded federally-administered co-op and non-profit housing providers.

The Minister also answered several questions and comments regarding the lack of a commitment in the budget for an Indigenous Housing Strategy.   He explained that this is still pending recommendations from a Parliamentary committee that studied Urban, Rural and Northern Indigenous housing.

In summary, Minister Hussen said that, taken together, Budget 2021 included “an additional $2.5 billion in different affordable housing related pockets of new money.” He said “we have come a long way, but we’re not there yet in terms of eliminating chronic homelessness.”

You can watch the full meeting recording here.

And for more information read CHF Canada’s federal budget news release, and budget analysis.


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