Saskatoon receives $41.3M from federal government to fast-track housing needs

City of Saskatoon has received $41.3 million from the federal government to create badly needed affordable homes.

The money is coming from the federal government's $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund, which was announced in March 2023. It's aimed at encouraging municipalities such as Saskatoon to meet the crisis in affordable housing

The city had to change its zoning rules to meet the fund's guidelines. 

Mayor Charlie Clark says the city is trying to combat homelessness and the housing demand they are seeing due to a population boom.

"We know we're a city that people want to live in," Clark said. 

"We had 14,000 people move to Saskatoon last year," he said. "It's double the amount of growth in one year that we've seen in any year in the last 20 years in Saskatoon."

Clark says only 2,600 housing units were built in 2023, not nearly enough to satisfy the demand. 

Inflation a factor

Inflation has also been creating challenges to get housing built, Clark says. 

The cash infusion means the city will be able to build more homes and resume partnerships, the mayor says. 

"We will be working directly with affordable-housing providers to accelerate the development of affordable units," he said. 

To meet some of the conditions needed to get all of the funding the city will build a four-storey apartment that will be within 800 metres of transit, Clark says. 

The City of Regina revamped its zoning rules a few weeks ago, and received $35 million from Ottawa under the fund.