The federal budget is set to be tabled a week from today (thurs).

Mayor Charlie Clark is calling for the budget to address homelessness. Saskatoon’s mayor says the city, like other centres across the country, has seen an increase in homelessness during the pandemic.

“There are far too many people homeless or in precarious and unsafe housing,” says Mayor Charlie Clark. “Safe, stable, affordable housing with effective wraparound supports is essential for people to be able to build towards a healthy and safe life.”

Clark says the upcoming budget is an opportunity to for the government to build on programs like the Rapid Housing Initiative and Reaching Home to address the growing housing crisis.

A full list of Mayor Clark’s priorities are listed below…

Top priorities to address in the upcoming Federal Budget:

·        Scaling up the proven Rapid Housing Initiative. This should be the centrepiece of the plan Canada urgently needs to end chronic homelessness.     

·        Boosting Reaching Home homelessness strategy permanently. Together, with the Reaching Home Initiative, these two steps can set us on track to achieving our shared goal of ending chronic homelessness.    

·        Launching the Housing Accelerator Fund to get housing built faster —with attention to priorities like a low-carbon intensification, transit-oriented development, inclusionary zoning and climate resilience. 

·        Acquiring modest-rent market housing. Preserving existing housing is far more cost-effective than building new.

·        Optimizing existing federal programs: improve programs like the National Housing Co-investment Fund and Rental Construction Financing Initiative—to create more affordable rental supply, deliver deeper affordability, and streamline approval processes for municipal applicants and their community partners.

·        Co-developing an Indigenous housing strategy to complement the National Housing Strategy. Building on the initial $300 million commitment, we recommend investing at least $3 billion over the next five years to establish long-term funding for at least 20,000 new housing units for Indigenous households in communities—urban, rural and northern.