Manitoba rental homes get $10M for renovations

The federal and provincial governments have awarded more than $10 million to repair and renovate hundreds of rental homes in Manitoba.

The money will be used to repair 738 homes and housing units.

“It’s a major step forward in our government’s bold, ambitious plan to build homes across Canada, and in this case, it’s about repairing more affordable homes here in Winnipeg,” said Rebecca Chartrand, Manitoba’s sole federal cabinet minister, at an announcement Tuesday.

The money comes from the federal Affordable Housing Fund, the Canada Community Housing Initiative and the province’s housing and renewal corporation.

Dial-a-Life Housing in Garden City received about $200,000 to upgrade 36 suites in the 125-unit facility, which is subsidized by the province to provide affordable housing to Indigenous people who require medical care in the city.

Reg Fredborg, the property manager for the Watson Street housing program, said the funds will be used to replace windows and make the units more energy efficient with new lighting and heaters.

“It’s fantastic,” he said. “I mean, we’ll be able to replace some (heat replacement ventilators) and some stuff that’s 30 years old that’s in dire need of being fixed or repaired. We want to upgrade it and make it more suitable for the people living here.”

The province contributed $1.22 million to the project.

“We need to make sure that we are repairing and keeping up to date with the units that we have and that they’re not going derelict. So this is putting a strong focus on improving energy efficiency, lowering operating costs and supporting sustainability for years to come,” said Housing Minister Bernadette Smith.

The Affordable Housing Fund provides low-interest and forgivable loans to eligible organizations.

The program has three streams of funding, including community housing, rapid housing and repair and renewal. Since June, the program has spent more than $12 billion to fund the construction of more than 50,000 units and repair over 174,600 units.

In late September, the feds announced $25.9 million through the program to build a 72-unit apartment building at 1510 Main St.

Inuka Community Inc., a Black-led community real estate developer, will build the units for low-to-moderate-income households.

About 40 per cent of the rents at the project will be “heavily discounted” to address the significant shortage of affordable units in Winnipeg, a news release from the announcement stated.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca