On January 31, 2024, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, Mr. Miller, announced $362.4 million in new funding to support housing for asylum claimants.
The funding is part of the 2023–2024 fiscal year and is specifically for the Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP).
New Funding for Asylum Claimants:
Quebec’s Allocated Funding
Quebec, a province in Canada, will receive $100 million from this new funding. Before this, the Premier of Quebec, François Legault, had asked for $470 million from the federal government to handle the higher number of people seeking asylum.
Additional Support Through IHAP
This new funding comes on top of the $212 million given to the whole country through IHAP in the summer of 2023. IHAP helps provincial and municipal governments share the costs of providing temporary housing due to more people seeking asylum.
The new funding is supposed to help provinces and cities deal with the increased demand for places to stay and prevent asylum seekers from ending up without a home. More information about this funding will be given later.
Previous Canada Fundings to Help Asylum Claimants
Canada has been supporting provinces and cities since 2017, giving them more than $750 million to tackle housing issues related to people seeking asylum. The government runs about 4,000 temporary rooms across the country, helping over 7,300 asylum seekers.
The Canadian government is committed to spending over $4 billion in nine years to fight homelessness through Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy. Just last year, the IRCC (Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada) provided $2 billion to help refugees and asylum seekers.
Provinces and cities that offer temporary shelter to asylum seekers need to ask for money to cover their costs. This has to be done before the Government of Canada decides how much it will contribute. The amount depends on the requests and the total budget for the program.
Apart from IHAP, the federal government has also arranged temporary housing for short stays to ease the pressure on local shelters. These locations have been adjusted to meet local needs and the growing demand.
