At their regular meeting today, City Council approved the creation of a new municipal incentive grant called the Permanent Supportive Housing Capital Grant Program. The program seeks to leverage federal funding to target one of the city’s largest identified housing gaps, by incentivizing up to 80 units of permanent supportive housing, as outlined in the Community Housing & Homelessness Integrated Plan.
This program is timely in that the Government of Alberta is actively seeking applications for the Affordable Housing Partnership Program, where municipal funding commitments may increase the likelihood of coordinated investments from all levels of government.
“When municipalities act as funding partners, it incentivizes development of much needed housing, which is what we aim to do with this grant program,” said Kristin Walsh, Manager, Safe & Healthy Communities. “Having this grant program supported by Council now allows us to identify shovel-ready projects in the community and, if successful in receiving the grant from the Government of Alberta, allow us to allocate funding for these projects, quickly.”
On July 24, 2023, The Government of Alberta announced $68M for second round of Affordable Housing Partnership Program. The City has already submitted an application to the Housing Accelerator Fund for funding to allocate to a range of incentive programs to support local housing needs and gaps.
A Request for Information (RFI) to learn about potential shovel-ready permanent supportive housing projects in Red Deer will be posted on The City's Bids and Tenders site soon.
More information on Housing & Homelessness efforts can be found at: https://www.reddeer.ca/about-red-deer/social-well-being-and-community-initiatives/housing-and-homelessness/.