The Government of Saskatchewan has announced it will spend $34m on government housing (Leader Post report here), much of it to rehabilitate housing it already owns and has let fall into disrepair in Regina. I appeared on CBC News at Six last night, making the point that this is a very expensive way to help a very small number of people out of situations created by broader market conditions.
If this housing really is to be rented out below market rates, how are the recipients selected? If the housing is to be rented out at market rates, then who will be absorbing the subsidy? And if the money is needed to rehabilitate housing that the Sask. Housing Corporation has left empty and in disrepair for some time, as CBC reported, then is it really a good idea to give the same people even more public money to manage housing? Perhaps a better solution would be to do as Frontier has previously recommended, and let public housing tenants buy their homes?
