Sask. budget sets aside $14.2M for housing needs, plans to renovate 285 units

WATCH: A large part of the Ministry of Social Services budget is set aside to address housing needs for vulnerable communities. Sierra D’Souza Butts reports.

Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Social Services plans to renovate 285 government housing units, along with expanding the province’s homelessness services, in this year’s 2025-26 provincial budget.

As part of the ministry’s $1.61 billion dollar budget, $14.2 million more dollars are set aside to address housing needs for vulnerable communities.

From that amount, $9.2 million in new funding will go directly towards repairing and renovating the 285 Saskatchewan Housing Corporation-owned units in Saskatoon, Regina, and Prince Albert.

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The other $5 million is to develop new housing units for people who need additional support to live independently, through the province’s existing rental development program.

“[This program] enables companies or community-based organizations (CBOs) to construct affordable homes,” explained Minister of Social Services Terry Jenson.

“Our job, and the job of the community-based organizations (CBOs) and ministries, is to identify each of those individuals needs, assess where they fit on the continuum, and then move them along the continuum so that they may start out in affordable housing, then moving into social housing.”

“Then the ultimate goal is to get them out of social housing then into market housing,” he added.

Jenson added that the government will work with third-party housing providers to work on expanding the province’s existing emergency shelter services.

" When it comes to homelessness each of those individuals, they got their own circumstances,” he told media Wednesday afternoon.

“We’re trying to work with as many of those individuals as we can to identify what they need and what their barriers are so that we can get them into the appropriate type of housing.”

Social services will also prioritize housing needs for seniors, families, and people with disabilities by increasing monthly income assistance benefits by two per cent for Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) and Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability (SAID) clients.

However, NDP MLA for Regina Wascana Brent Blakley says it is not enough.

“The increase is only off the last budget, not on what was actually spent,” Blakley said, referring to the province’s overall budget.

“Specifically in social services, I was more than disappointed in what was touted as a two per cent increase. In my mind, it doesn’t even keep up with the cost of living which is very disappointing.”

“You have people that are struggling to make ends meet, and the government’s giving them an extra, if you work it out, $20 to $24 a month,” he added.

Blakley also shared his disappointment that the province did not utilize a plan proposed by the opposition prior to the fall election.

“We were going to introduce … direct payment to landlords and utilities,” he explained. “It wasn’t even addressed in the budget. That’s something that’s very simple – doesn’t cost the government anything, but again, it wasn’t addressed in the budget.”