Finding affordable housing for refugees a challenge for local sponsors
Posted Jan 8, 2016 08:07:53 AM.
Last Updated Jan 8, 2016 08:13:07 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The rush to find housing for Syrian refugees is picking up steam.
As the federal government’s February deadline for bringing in 10,000 refugees approaches, more families can be expected to arrive in Waterloo Region.
Deb Schlichter, the Director of Housing Services with the Region of Waterloo, says one of the biggest challenges is that the amount of money given to refugees for rent is “quite restrictive.”
“For example,” says Schlichter, “the largest-sized family would only be able to get up to $877 a month to pay for rent, and we all know that that’s not going to be sufficient. So how do we make that small amount of money stretch as far as it can?”
“Ideally, it would be at a cost that people would be able to afford, it would be located in areas that are close to amenities and transit, but realistically, we may not be able to get everything that we would prefer to see.”
The Region of Waterloo is doing its part in helping to find housing.
Schlichter says they’re looking to connect refugee sponsors with potential landlords:
“The trick is to try to do the matching, and that means we need lots of units to be available — we need landlords coming forward offering units to be able to make those matches.”
For more information, go to wrwelcomesrefugees.ca.
