Beaver Staff
Hastings-Lennox and Addington MP Mike Bossio celebrated last week as the federal government announced it had invested $5.7 million since 2016 to help make housing affordable for nearly a million Canadians.
Specifically in his riding, Bossio says the investments have meant $3.3 million in supports for over 1,000 households.
“A lot of this would have gone through the county levels of government and the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory,” Bossio told the Beaver. “Most of it is for retrofits, upgrades, and maintenance. There’s a lot of housing our there that needed upgrades — a chunk of this is for seniors’ housing and other social housing. It’s new builds and retrofits.”
Bossio said increasing access to affordable housing must remain a priority.
“We need to make sure people are living in a decent home and we need to assist those who create more affordable houses to live in,” he said, noting organizations that provide social housing often struggle to afford to upgrade their facilities.
“These upgrades enable them to reduce their costs and create greater energy efficiencies. We know some of the greatest costs are energy costs.”
Money also went into shelters and transitional housing projects.
Bossio said he believes in the importance of affordable housing and he’s been working toward addressing the problem locally. He recently held a workshop in Napanee to encourage stakeholders to build affordable housing and has one planned for Bancroft Dec. 10.
“It’s a priority for me and it’s a priority, of course, for the government,” he said, referencing the $40-billion National Housing Strategy the government says will reduce chronic homelessness by 50 per cent and entrench a human right-based approach to housing. It promises support and repairs for 685,000 existing affordable units and the creation of 100,000 more.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime, multi-generational opportunity,” he said. “With the National Housing Strategy, I want to assure that we do everything humanly possible to maximize the opportunity that exists to do something about homelessness and affordable housing in my riding.”
Bossio said the program isn’t about government building units itself, but simplifying the process and connecting stakeholders to the right resources to encourage them to build the necessary housing to meet demand.