Ontario helps create affordable housing in Barrie for Indigenous families
The Ontario government is investing more than $800,000 to help create two affordable housing units in Barrie for Indigenous families at risk of homelessness and those fleeing domestic violence.
With the funding, the Barrie Native Friendship Centre acquired a duplex, with both units receiving significant makeovers.
The main floor has three bedrooms, and the secondary basement unit has two. Rents are affordable and include utilities.
"When we work together, we can help those that are most vulnerable," said Justin Marchand, executive director of the Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services.
The friendship centre says it's the first step to obtaining more safe and secure housing for those in need.
"And it means that you know what, it's a new learning experience for the friendship centre and our community to be able to address it in this way," said Samantha Kinoshameg, executive director of the Barrie Native Friendship Centre.
Neither the friendship centre nor the province could give an exact number of units needed in the City of Barrie, but this does feed into Ontario's larger provincial target for this year.
"We're looking at, when it comes to community and supportive housing, more than 3,000 homes across the province this year through retrofits and new housing being added," said Michael Parsa, Associate Minister of Housing.
The Barrie duplex will be the start of culturally supportive housing, providing services culturally geared to its tenants.
"The people that are accessing the friendship centre programming have another opportunity for housing, or the people that are in the housing have an opportunity for the friendship centre," Kinoshameg noted.
"And when it comes to wraparound supports, that includes things like finding employment, so when it comes to supporting Indigenous communities, we will follow Indigenous-led recommendations," said Barrie-Innisfil MP Andrea Khanjin.
The units are ready for the first families to settle in. All that's left is for the application process to close, which could take roughly a month to complete.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Several flight attendants from Pakistan have gone missing after landing in Canada
Multiple flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines have abandoned their jobs and are believed to have sought asylum in Canada in the past year and a half, a spokesperson for the government-owned airline says.
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
What happens after we die? Most Canadians say an afterlife does exist, survey shows
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.