Liberals roll out social housing funding

Social housing providers reliant on federal funding will receive some short-term financial help starting this week to eventually keep 55,000 units available for low-income families.

The government’s pledge of $38 million over two years from a promised $500 million fund under the national housing strategy buys the Liberals time to set the parameters for how the rest of the money will be spent.

Eligible co-ops had their new agreements mailed this week.

The Liberals hope they can change the way housing providers are funded as their federal operating agreements expire in the coming years and ensure no net loss in the stock of federally administered community housing.

Under the first phase of what the Liberals call the ``community housing initiative,’’ housing providers with operating agreements that will expire before the end of February 2020 won’t see a change in their subsidy until the end of March 2020.

At that point, the Liberals want to move to a new funding scheme to subsidize rents, but plan to consult non-profit and co-operative housing providers about the design of the long-term program.

The announcement marks one of the first program details coming out of the national housing strategy unveiled in November, which aims to build 100,000 new affordable housing units and repair more than 300,000 aging units.