North Battleford has given the green light to a pocket housing project within the city.
City council passed a resolution Monday to authorize city administration to purchase two lots located at 1322 and 1332 103rd Street for development of pocket housing.
The resolution states that those lots be purchased by the City for $50,000 plus or minus 10 per cent, to be used for development of the pocket housing project under the federal government's Homelessness Partnership Strategy, conditional on receipt of funding approval from the other government partners and support of the neighbouring property owners.
City Manager Jim Toye told reporters this project is a "multilevel government partnershjp between the federal government, provincial government, the city government and the tribal council to build a facility. It's a small eight-unit facility that is going to house people who are in need of housing."
The project will meet a need.
"There's an identified gap in the city of North Battleford for this type of housing," Toye said.
It will not be the City running the facility; instead, that aspect will be handled by a non-profit organization, Toye indicated. The board of directors for that non-profit includes Councillor Ray Fox, both tribal councils and also a member of one of the local churches.
"They have some idea of the project and are very excited to take this on," Toye said.
It will be a brand-new building, and right now Toye is waiting to hear back from other potential funding partners.
"We're waiting to hear back from the federal government. It sounded very positive there - it's the last stage of their funding. We hope to hear by the end of the month," Toye said. The City has also spoken to the province and their share is about $200,000, Toye said.
The hope is to start building the facility this summer and for residents to be in this winter. However, Toye indicated it will still take at least six weeks to complete the design, so it seems more likely the building will not be ready to be occupied until closer to the end of 2013.
