YWCA to receive $30,000 from city for new housing development
Emokhare Paul Anthony
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Daily Herald
Prince Albert city council has approved funding for a new 20-unit non-market affordable housing development on 99 – 18th Street West.
The YWCA submitted the application to develop the property. Council approved it unanimously on Monday. Coun. Tonie Head approved the motion with Coun. Dawn Kilmer seconding it.
Approval is subject to the applicant entering into a 15-year operating agreement with the city. The City will also contribute $30,000 to the project out of the Housing Reserve.
Community Development Director Craig Guidinger said the city had just finished the housing needs assessment. That assessment showed non-market housing was a huge gap that the City needs to close.
He said the new 20-unit housing development will really help.
“The housing needs assessment exemplified the needs for these types of units, and the YWCA, with partnership from the City and different levels of government, are starting to chip away at that need,” Guidinger told council during Monday’s meeting. “It’s a big step and we hope for more projects like this to fill that void.”
Guidinger said non-market units are a type of housing with a maximum cost of 80 per cent of market value.
In a report included in the agenda for Monday’s council meeting, planner Krista Nakonechny wrote that partnerships like this one with the YWCA help make housing developments viable despite financial limitations.
“Approving this application directly addresses the City’s recognition that stable, affordable housing is essential to community well-being,” Nakonechny wrote. “By providing secure, long-term housing for low-income households, the development helps reduce housing instability, which in turn supports safer, more resilient neighbourhoods less vulnerable to social challenges.”
The property is located roughly one block away from the Court of King’s Bench in central Prince Albert.
YWCA Prince Albert is expected to begin construction this spring. The development permit for a multi-unit dwelling was approved on Aug. 31, 2023.
