Lethbridge City Council approves funding for affordable housing needs

Lethbridge City Council conditionally approved close to $5 million in municipal funding requests for the federal Rapid Housing Initiative. City staff say the money could be used to leverage close to $39 million for the proposed projects.

You can view the exact breakdown of funding below:

• $1,970,240 of the Blackfoot Family Lodge’s total project cost of $4,925,600  
• $1.5 million of the Blood Tribe Housing’s total project cost of $14 million 
• $1.5 million of MyCityCare Lethbridge’s total project cost of $19,968,571  

All municipal funding is conditional upon each project receiving RHI funding. Lethbridge Mayor Blaine Hyggen says if these projects were to be approved, they would go a long way in helping out our city’s most vulnerable.

“It would take many of the folks that we have on our street and those most vulnerable and get them into a home. So it’s extremely important. Again, it’s something that is a top priority for this council. And to see the three organizations come forward and want to help with the funds that they’re providing as well, outside of even the federal funding or provincial funding that may come, is just it’s fantastic to see, to be very honest.”

The three applicants next steps will be to apply for funding. The deadline for organizations to do so is March 15 to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation for consideration.

Projects in Lethbridge will be able to apply to the “Project Stream” portion of RHI which has $1 billion in funding available. The projects will have to be completed before January 1, of 2025.