The British Columbia government plans to build more than 1,600 rentals targeted for Indigenous people as part of the province's $19 billion affordable housing program.
The units are set to include 667 rentals in reserves, land tracts set aside by the Canadian government for use by First Nations or other Indigenous peoples, and nearly 1,000 units located outside reserves, according to a statement from the BC Housing ministry.
The new rentals are funded by the government's $1.7 billion Indigenous Housing Fund, the first program in Canada to earmark affordable housing for native ethnic groups. Projects are planned for Vancouver Island, Surrey and Fraser, along with Prince George and other areas that are generally north of Vancouver and in British Columbia's interior.
The 1,662 new units would more than double the 1,500 rentals are already open or under development for Indigenous families, elders, individuals and people with disabilities, according to the ministry.
The fund is part of a $19 billion provincial program to add thousands of housing units to help alleviate British Columbia's housing shortage that has contributed to steep annual rent increases over the past few years.
The Indigenous housing project includes 65 units near transit in Surrey’s Whalley neighbourhood, where provincial and Indigenous representatives — including members of the Kwantlen, Katzie and Semiahmoo First Nations — met recently with Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon at the headquarters of the Fraser Region Aboriginal Friendship Centre Association to announce details of the program.
The housing fund is part of the Canadian government's reconciliation efforts, a series of agreements between the province and Indigenous groups focused on closing socioeconomic gaps between Indigenous groups and other residents.
BC Housing is working with nonprofit housing groups for First Nations and Indigenous groups that represent the province's earliest known inhabitants.
The developments are "a crucial response to the housing crisis facing Indigenous communities, especially in Surrey, home to BC’s fastest-growing urban Indigenous population," Kyla Painter, executive director of the Fraser Region Aboriginal Friendship Centre Association, said in the statement.