After roughly ten years in the making, 72 new housing units have opened up on Hart Road in Saskatoon, 36 of them designated for low-income individuals.
The collaborative project, dubbed the Metis Veterans Plaza, is a collaboration between Camponi Housing Corporation, the governments of Canada and Saskatchewan, SaskNative Rentals, and the City of Saskatoon.
Chair of Camponi Housing Angela Bishop says the housing complex provides affordable one-, two-, three–, and four-bedroom units for seniors and families in the area. She says the need for affordable housing is greater now than ever before.
“The one-bedrooms are $800. The two bedrooms are $1000. We have some three-bedrooms. Those ones are $1400, and the four–bedrooms are $1600.”
Tenants have been moved in since October, but Bishop says Friday’s grand opening brings awareness to the unique, culturally based services and supports available to them.
“We do food bank delivery to our tenants, because food stability is also important in housing stability when you have to make a choice between food or paying the rent.”
Bishop explains that Camponi caters to low-income individuals, making sure to keep their needs in mind when developing their policies. For example, each one of these new units is pet friendly.
“We recognize that within the community, there’s a lot of landlords that maybe won’t do that. We also recognize that within our community, because of the impacts of trauma, people have pets and it’s to provide emotional support.”
Other features include an on-site daycare, a pet-food bank, and a community gathering space.
Saskatoon Mayor Cynthia Block says the collaborative project is a great blueprint for what the city needs more of looking into the future.
“This project demonstrates bold leadership on behalf of the Metis community, on behalf of Camponi and Native housing, and how they were able to assemble orders of government, all of them.”
Funding for this project is comprised of $33,600,322 through the Affordable Housing Fund, $1,200,000 in funding from the Government of Saskatchewan through the RDP, $500,000 in funding from the Government of Saskatchewan through SCIP, and $150,000 from the City of Saskatoon and a 5-year incremental tax abatement.
