The federal government ended 2020 on a busy note.

On December 16, in two separate announcements, the government pledged more than $15 million under its Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI) for projects in London and the Region of Waterloo.

London will receive $7.5 million to build 61 affordable homes at a site at 122 Baseline Road West. The project will be a modular-style building that focuses on housing priority and vulnerable populations.

"This funding and this project will save lives and ultimately improve the lives of those who come to occupy these desperately needed units,” said Mayor Ed Holder. “Supporting London's most vulnerable is a cause to which our municipal council is fiercely committed having allocated $70 million towards affordable housing and related supports in our multi-year budget, the largest investment of its kind by a London City Council in recent memory."

According to CMHC data, 13.5 percent of households in London are in core housing need, defined as a home that is below standards for adequacy, suitability or affordability and a household that would have to spend 30 percent or more of its before-tax household income to access local housing that meets all three standards. 

Built for Zero Canada, a national organization that aims to eliminate homelessness, recently recognized London as the first community in Canada to create a real-time list of all veterans experiencing homelessness in the community. The City of London Homeless Prevention and Housing team has reduced the number of veterans experiencing homelessness by more than 75 percent.

Waterloo Region, meanwhile, received $8.2 million in RHI funding for two projects that will create 42 modular housing units. The proposal includes 36 units of supportive housing on Block Line Road in Kitchener for women experiencing or at risk of homelessness, and six one-bedroom units located on Bechtel Street in Cambridge for applicants on the community housing waitlist.

"These projects closely align with the region's housing and homelessness plan by expanding support to help low-and moderate-income households find and maintain housing,’ said regional chair Karen Redman.

"The Rapid Housing Initiative is a truly collaborative effort to build much-needed affordable housing," said Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic. “With women being one of the most impacted groups of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Kitchener is pleased to contribute our Block Line property—valued at $2.57 million—toward this partnership with the YWCA as our first investment to support Kitchener Council's recently approved Housing For All strategy."

Under the $1-billion RHI, the Government of Canada will support the construction of up to 3,000 permanent affordable housing units across Canada to help address urgent housing needs for Canadians.

The RHI provides capital contributions to develop new, permanent affordable housing by covering costs associated with modular multi-unit rental construction, conversion of non-residential to affordable multi-residential, and the rehabilitation of buildings in disrepair to affordable multi-residential.