The federal government is directing another $300 million in renewed funding to Indigenous-led housing projects in urban, rural and northern communities. It would bring the total investment through the organization to more than half a billion dollars. 

Indigenous Services Canada announced Monday it is renewing funding for the National Indigenous Collaborative Housing Incorporated (NICHI) to deliver through its “For Indigenous, By Indigenous” (FIBI) housing initiative at the Annual General Meeting in Ottawa. 

“This investment will support a new round of projects helping deliver more homes where it is needed the most, and ensuring that we are strengthening Indigenous capacity to lead that hope,” Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty said. 

The funding will go toward capital developments and renovations to existing Indigenous housing, with a focus on addressing urgent and unmet housing needs in urban, rural and northern communities. The money also builds on the $281.5 million in federal funding previously provided to NICHI through the first round of the FIBI initiative in 2023. 

Gull-Masty added that the organization’s funding has supported 77 housing projects and delivered at least 3,800 housing units since 2023.

The $300 million is part of Ottawa’s broader $4-billion Urban, Rural and Northern Indigenous Housing Strategy. Under a funding model announced in April, close to $1.7 billion is set to be delivered through Build Canada Homes to Indigenous housing providers, while up to $300 million was earmarked for Indigenous Services Canada to move projects already in the pipeline forward as the new federal housing agency develops partnerships with Indigenous providers. 

READ MORE: Will ‘Build Canada Homes’ move the needle in affordable homes?

During the announcement, Gull-Masty also teased an upcoming federal Indigenous Housing Strategy, to be unveiled later this year alongside Housing Minister Gregor Robertson and Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty. 

“We know that this strategy will play a vital role in how we continue this work. We are doing the important and necessary work of listening to Indigenous partners and responding to the lived realities of their communities,” she said. 

NICHI has argued that Indigenous organizations should play a central role in deciding how federal housing dollars are spent. 

Speaking at the announcement, the chair of NICHI Board of Directors, Jocelyn Formsma, pointed to the organization’s first round of federal funding as evidence that an Indigenous-led model can deliver housing quickly. 

“It was our governance, it was our decisions and the implementation and the accountability was with our people,” Formsma said.

“Over 80 per cent of Indigenous peoples are now living in urban, rural, northern communities, and continue to face core housing needs, overcrowding, homelessness… this is not new information,” she said. 

That demand exceeded the funding available, according to NICHI. The organization says it received roughly $2.2 billion in requests during its first funding round and could only get a fraction of them.

“We’re still working on the other $3 billion,” Formsma said, referring to the broader federal housing strategy.