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Territory spends all of its municipal rental construction grant money

Nine projects funded, four go without
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Crystal Schick/Yukon News file The $1.5 million Municipal Matching Rental Construction Grant has been completely allocated for this fiscal year

Anyone planning to add a living or garden suite with the help of the territory’s Municipal Matching Rental Construction Grant program may want to consider putting it off until after the 2020 fiscal year gets underway.

As it stands the $1.5 million available through the grant funding has been fully committed by Yukon Housing for this year, going to nine projects, Yukon Housing spokeswoman Sarah Murray wrote in an email.

The funding — aimed at increasing the supply of rental housing in municipalities around the territory — provides one time grants to those building rental stock.

Under the program, minor developments — where a living or garden suite is added to a residential property — can receive up to a maximum of $10,000.

Standard developments — multi-family developments with less than 10 rental units — can receive up to $50,000. Larger major developments can receive up to $500,000.

The $1.5 million for this fiscal year is approved for five minor and four major projects. Another four applications, submitted after those nine were approved, are on a waiting list, Murray said.

“There is potential that currently approved applications will be withdrawn from the program this year,” she wrote. “If this occurs, then funding will be reallocated to other projects in the order in which applications were received.”

Whether the territory will increase the amount available for the grant won’t be known until next year.

“Funding for the Municipal Matching Rental Construction Grant is subject to the annual budget cycle. We use the past year’s uptake of the program to best align our budget with the program demand,” Murray said.

“For example, due to the popularity of this program, the budget increased from $1 million in 2018-2019 to $1.5 million in 2019-2020.”

A total of 106 projects have received funding through the program since it was introduced in 2015.

Contact Stephanie Waddell at stephanie.waddell@yukon-news.com



Stephanie Waddell

About the Author: Stephanie Waddell

I joined Black Press in 2019 as a reporter for the Yukon News, becoming editor in February 2023.
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