Rice hopes new infrastructure funding will begin to close housing gap
Mohawk Council of Kahnawake Executive Operations Officer Alan John Rice is eyeing not one, not two, but three different ways to use a $2 million grant slated to help the community, he said.
“We’re going to use that money three in different ways,” Rice said. “First, we are exploring the possibility of building one 30-unit residential building, or two 16-unit buildings, in the New Development area.”
The location is not set in stone, Rice added. The community will be able to access $400,000 for that.
“Well, we know that we also have concerns with older adults with mobility issues, so we are also thinking about a location that might be more accessible by public transit and closer to services those people might need to access,” he said. “We’re going to explore a number of options.”
Those units would be slated for single people or small families, Rice said. The price tag for those units would be about $900,000.
The funding is federal money being administered through Kahnawake Shakotiia’takenhnas Community Services (KSCS) as part of an agreement in principle on Long Term Reform of the First Nations Child and Family Services Program and Jordan’s Principle.
“We’re not sure what would work better, so we will wait until we have hired an architect for that,” said Rice, adding tenders have already gone out to firms for submission.
Additionally, part of that funding will be used to build three new family units this year, Rice said.
“We’ll build three family units and we’re also exploring prefabricated housing for that project. But we’re going to explore all avenues to find the best way forward,” he said.
Rice expects to have more information after the end-of-July construction holiday.
“We’re anticipating the construction holiday might have an impact on the architects getting back to us, so we expect to have more information by August.
It also marks the first time the MCK Housing Unit has accessed large amounts of funding outside of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
“There has been a tremendous amount of work done over the last few years,” Rice said. “While there is still much work to do, we’re happy to make this announcement now, as these are just a few of the projects that will greatly improve our housing situation in the community.”
The third portion of the program will be packaged as renovation grants to homeowners, Rice said. That grant fund will come in around $700,000.
“We’d like to get those out to people, but that’s still in the preliminary phase,” he said. “There have been a number of requests for those and we hope to get started as soon as we can.”
Marc Lalonde, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Iori:wase
