Squamish Nation receives $1.4B loan for 3,000 rental homes from Canada

The federal government is providing a $1.4-billion loan to the Squamish Nation to build 3,000 homes on land in Vancouver that was once an ancient village that was burned and expropriated. 

By Charlie Carey and The Canadian Press

The federal government is providing a $1.4-billion loan to a Vancouver-area First Nation to build 3,000 homes on land that was once a village which was burned and expropriated a century ago.

Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) says the development is the largest Indigenous-led housing and retail development in the history of Canada.

“The Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw and the federal government’s partnership to support the residential development of Sen̓áḵw is a historic moment in Canada’s relationship with Indigenous communities,” Nation chairperson Khelsilem said. “This investment will build many needed rental apartments and generate long-term wealth for Squamish People across many generations. The wealth generated from these lands can then be recirculated into our local economies and communities to address our people’s urgent needs for affordable housing, education, and social services.”

The development will be built on 10.5 acres of the Nation’s ancestral land, in Kitsilano near the south end of the Burrard Street Bridge, land that was returned to the Nation by the courts in 2003.

“Something that all people of Vancouver can celebrate through the advancement of the Sen̓áḵw project is that Squamish people will be coming home,” Khelsilem said in May this year.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the development’s additional supply of rental units has the potential to change both pricing and availability for housing in Vancouver.

“This creation of thousands, upon thousands, of new affordable rental units, a number of them low-income rental units, is going to make a huge difference in the lives of thousands of families who all of a sudden have the stability, the opportunity, the proximity to work,” Trudeau said Tuesday.

Trudeau noted the importance of self-determination and economic independence for the Nation with the development.

“Today’s announcement not only builds more much-needed homes for Vancouverites, it supports the Squamish Nation’s vision for their traditional lands and their path to continued economic independence and self-determination. When we all work together as partners – federal and Indigenous governments, private sector, local communities – we innovate, and we find solutions to the challenges we face,” he said.

When complete, the Sen̓áḵw development will see 6,000 new rental homes — around 250 of which will be designated as affordable housing reserved for Squamish Nation members — and 1,200 new affordable homes built in the city. It will also bring in billions of dollars in revenue for the Nation. The federal government, under the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), has committed to finance the first two of four phases.

The prime minister made the announcement before heading into a three-day cabinet retreat in Vancouver as the Liberal government prepares for the next sitting of Parliament.

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