Manitoba's Premier is excited about what he calls a 'Team Manitoba' approach to increasing affordable housing options in the province.
The Manitoba government announced last week that it is providing $10 million in grant funding to the Business Council of Manitoba to support a new investment trust that will increase the availability of affordable housing units in Manitoba.
Developed by the Business Council of Manitoba, the Collaborative Housing Alliance Real Estate Investment Trust aims to increase the availability of affordable housing in Manitoba by converting and renovating existing buildings and building new units that will offer below-market affordable housing options.
The one-time grant funding will cover the startup costs of the trust, allow the business council to solicit other investors and acquire or construct at least three new housing projects in the next year.
"We know housing is such a big priority. I hear about it everywhere. I hear about it in the Pembina Valley. I hear about it in Winnipeg. I hear about it across the province," said Premier Wab Kinew. "We know we have a challenge here and now we're going to be unlocking the power of business to help us solve some of these housing issues.
What I mean by that is this, you have a ton of great non-for-profits out there. People who work with the homeless, people who work with seniors in our community, people who work to try and help Manitobans move out of poverty. We've got all these great organizations, and their expertise is about helping people. It's about doing outreach in the community. It's about working with seniors. But then we turn around and we say, 'now be an expert on project management. Now be an expert on haggling with contractors to stand up a new building', and it's like we're asking them to develop a whole new skill set overnight. So instead, basically, what this money that we're talking about, 10 million dollars we're investing here as a government with your tax dollars, is we're saying, 'well, we're going to connect these people who have that expertise working in the community with business people who already know how to haggle with contractors and already know how to do project management and to stand up buildings in a cost efficient way."
The Premier feels this is a real exciting partnership opportunity.
"The Government, we still have that role of social housing for the people who are just getting off the street or who need that first level of housing, if you will. And now, we're working on this partnership with the Business Council of Manitoba so that they can go out and, with the $10 million, get other investors to come forward, multiply that amount so that now we're talking you know, tens of millions more in investment and then go out into the community and build that affordable housing, those next steps on the property ladder, if you will, so that we can get more people into good housing across Manitoba."
The Manitoba government will closely monitor the outcomes of the trust over the next year.