The City of Saskatoon is getting a new jolt of federal funding to help boost current homelessness and encampment initiatives. On Tuesday, the city unveiled plans for its $1.4 million share of the federal government’s $125 million Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampment Initiative. “Unlike the previous round, in this case, the city is not required to demonstrate municipal cost matching for these funds,” Lesley Anderson, the city’s director of planning and development, said to the city’s governance and priorities committee. As part of this federal funding extension, the money is going through the provincial government instead of directly to municipalities. While negotiations are still ongoing, the city is expecting the province to provide $1.4 million via the Saskatchewan Housing Corporation. The funding term is from April 1, 2026, to March 31, 2027, so Anderson said much of the effort is to use the funds on previous initiatives to ensure all money can be used appropriately before the deadline. Anderson said $100,00 is going directly to The Salvation Army to support winter warming services at the men’s winter overnight drop-in centre, which opened on Nov. 1. Another $450,000 will go towards the new drop-in centre at 130 Idylwyld Drive North to cover unexpected renovations that appeared after the city bought the building and began construction. “I just want to ask, what is our process for inspecting buildings? Because it seems like every time we buy a building, we’re running into unexpected problems,” Ward 3 Coun. Robert Pearce said. “This is an older building, so our estimates and our knowledge of it at the time of purchase was based on a typical type of property inspection,” Anderson replied. “And it did lead us to buy a building that had some things that we did not see in advance. They have not been significant. But we do, with this funding source, have an opportunity to address them.” The $450,000 of federal funding allows the city to reallocate $350,000 back to city reserves, resulting in an increase of $100,000. A majority of the funds — $800,000 — will go towards the creation of a new housing and repair grant pilot for transitional supportive housing, after years of feedback from housing providers calling for more funds to repair the existing stock of affordable housing. While much of the criteria for the pilot program is yet to be sorted, the committee approved grants of up to $15,000 per unit going towards projects that contain a minimum of five housing units “to ensure investments achieve meaningful impact while supporting efficient program administration,” according to a report. “This type of grant would help them to bring those units up to a higher standard of today and bring them back on stream to support supportive and transitional housing needs as that critical piece in our continuum,” Anderson said. Funding would be provided through a targeted call for proposals. Highest priority consideration would be given to Indigenous-led organizations and “established” non-profit housing providers with a history of providing supportive or transitional housing programs. Chosen applicants would be required to maintain affordability on these units for a minimum of 10 years. The remaining $50,000 of funding will go towards engagement and site preparations for planned transitional or supportive housing units the city plans to roll out. To accommodate all this work, administration will temporarily defer work on the community navigation hub and future use planning for 325 Avenue C South until after the March 31, 2027 deadline. “With this funding, the city has greater flexibility; we have very little if no financial risk, and there’s no cost-sharing or what not with this money,” Ward 9 Coun. Bev Dubois said.
