Alberta and Ottawa have agreed to spend hundreds of millions on dozens of new affordable housing projects. The provincial and federal governments jointly announced Wednesday in Edmonton they will spend $323 million on 41 such projects. Jason Nixon, Alberta’s minister responsible for housing, said the funding, of which at least 10 per cent is earmarked for accessible units, will help developers build more than 3,600 affordable homes. It will also go toward 70 new shelter spaces. The province says the projects will help ensure seniors, families, people recovering from addiction and people with disabilities have places to live. The funding from both levels of government comes through Alberta’s Affordable Housing Partnership Program. Nixon said the province is 70 per cent of the way to its goal of increasing the supply of affordable housing by 82,000 five years into its decade-long Stronger Foundations strategy. He told media at McQueen Place Lodge, site of Wednesday’s announcement, that projects under it are being completed within one to two years and will increase the province’s supply of affordable housing by more than 40 per cent by 2031. “We work very closely with our federal colleagues in the Federal Housing Department to be able to make sure that we’re selecting projects at each phase that can hit the ground running,” Nixon said. “That does not mean that we’re not interested in developing the other projects. We’re working on this through a multi-year commitment so those projects can come next, but when we announce projects, we’re ready to go. You start to see some level of construction pretty quickly, depending on the size of the project.”
