Sask. mayors call for government housing to be more accessible

A safe place to live WATCH: Mayors across Saskatchewan are calling for a reworking of the criteria to access to government housing. Wayne Mantyka reports.

Saskatchewan is host to thousands of vacant government housing units. This issue has many of Saskatchewan’s mayors calling for action.

“The mayors of Saskatchewan for SUMA basically took it on themselves to be advocates for this problem that we have,” explained mayor of Yorkton, Mitch Hippsley.

The Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association have said that there are 3000 vacant public housing units in the province.

They were intended for low income earners yet many of those potential tenants don’t qualify to move in. SUMA is calling for a review of the criteria.

“The whole housing program we feel needs reworking,” said Hippsley. “Apparently we’ve got 270 associations that are related to this. That needs to be fixed. I mean I guess there’s just too much red tape you might say.”

SUMA has made mayors this issue a priority and has raised it with local MLAs at every opportunity. SUMA believes the government has heard its message and that changes will be made to fill government housing units.