Ottawa’s Project Mikinak gets $24M from province for affordable homes

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The Ontario government is providing more than $24 million to help fund Project Mikinak, an east-end development by Ottawa Community Housing that will provide homes for seniors, families, Indigenous people and those with developmental disabilities.

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The money, announced in Ottawa on Wednesday by Minister of Housing Steve Clark, will fund up to 138 affordable and supportive units of the 271 homes at Mikinak in the Wateridge Village on the site of the former Rockcliffe air base.

“These 138 new homes will be offered to Ottawa residents with a clear need, including those currently living in emergency shelters,” Clark said. “Instead of ad hoc or temporary housing arrangements, these Ontarians will have access to new, safe supportive housing that will provide them with the stability and the opportunity they need to succeed.”

The money is in addition to $48 million in funding for Ottawa through the province’s Homelessness Prevention Program. It also helps offset what the city felt was its minuscule share of a $202-million pot to address homelessness province-wide. Ottawa received just 0.4 per cent of that $202 million, a portion the provincial government said was based on a new formula using up-to-date stats.

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Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, who quipped Clark’s announcement “was the most exciting gathering in the mayor’s office since Ryan Reynolds came to visit,” said the new money helped make up for that disappointment.

“This money today allows us to fulfil a requirement that we felt was not being fulfilled with the previous funding,” Sutcliffe said to reporters after the announcement. “In the end, the total amount of money we’re getting to address homelessness and affordable housing in Ottawa has just gone up by $24.1 million and that’s great for the City of Ottawa.”

The development at 715 Mikinak Rd. will include a mix of unit sizes with varying levels of affordability, including average-market-rent units and below-market-rent units. Last fall, the project received $78 million in federal funding.

The government’s capital investments will help keep rents at Mikinak low, OCH chief executive officer Stéphane Giguère said.

Approximately 33,000 people are tenants of Ottawa Community Housing, and there is a waiting list of 12,000 names for affordable housing. That translates to an average wait of 5 1/2 years, said Coun. Theresa Kavanagh, the chair of OCH.