By Canadian Press

Cities to parties: Spend more to fill housing-plan gaps for seniors, Indigenous

Aug 28, 2019 | 2:08 AM

OTTAWA — Canada’s cities are asking federal parties to add more than $500 million a year to the national government’s decade-long housing strategy.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities says the measures are needed to fill gaps in the plan over its remaining eight years, to make renting more affordable and keep people from going homeless.

Among the requests are a new fund to help seniors pay for refits so they can stay in their homes longer, another to help build more housing for urban Indigenous people, and a separate program to pay for units for homeless people with mental illnesses.

Cities are also asking parties to consider a combination of subsidies and tax credits for owners of aging rental buildings to pay for upgrades and maintain the apartments as low-cost units.

The measures in the platform being made public today would cost about $580 million a year over the remaining eight years of the existing housing strategy.

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The Liberals unveiled their 10-year, $40-billion national housing strategy in late 2017 in partnership with provinces and territories, and have since boasted the total cost to be over $55 billion when including new spending measures in this year’s budget.

The Canadian Press