The City of Kamloops is seeking support from a number of sources as it looks to gather support for its application for $11.9 million from the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund to build 300 units

Councillor Kelly Hall says the City should reach out to Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP Frank Caputo asking for his support after the previous housing accelerator application was rejected in March.

“When we did not receive that 15.6 million, we actually leaned on Frank Caputo to walk a letter across the floor to Minister of Housing Sean Fraser, which he did,” Hall said.

“I would like to put a motion forward that we do the same here, where we reach out to Frank Caputo and put forward a letter so that he can do the same on our behalf, but also expand that to FCM [the Federation of Canadian Municipalities] and have them support our opportunity.”

They will also ask Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc for a letter of support, after Development Director Marvin Kwiatkowski told council that advocacy will likely be an important component, given the anticipated number of applications that are expected.

“In my view all letters do assist,” Kwiatkowski said.

“Now whether they will have them in time for the package because we’re going to be sending it off in the next day. But I think its very important to do advocacy and I heard that last year when I met with some people from the feds, saying you need to hit it hard on the advocacy.”

Applications are due by this Friday, Sept. 13, though it is not clear when successful grant applicants will be notified.

You can find more details about the City’s reworked grant application, including a breakdown of how it proposes to use the grant funding, here.