ABORIGINAL HOUSING SOCIETY

The Aboriginal Housing Society was formed as a not-for-profit in 2005.

In 2007, the society received its first capital grant to build Koh-koonoon, ‘Our Home,’ on 5th Avenue N., a 29 unit townhouse complex.

 “We’ve had it fully occupied from the day we started. The only time we actually achieve vacancies, much like any landlord I guess, is when somebody moves out, but it’s filled very, very quickly. So, based on Koh-koonoon…we then leveraged some more city and province money to purchase two duplexes on the west side, so we have four units up there that are five bedroom. And eight townhouses on Stafford Drive North.”

 The Aboriginal Housing Society has also been involved in assisting people achieve home ownership through grant funding down payments, and more recently purchased six fourplex units. “We put six families in there on a home ownership program and after five years we have three people who have successfully purchased those units, and another two who are in place to purchase theirs within the next year, and one that was successful in retaining a house on reserve, so they left the property here. Other people have had different circumstances, but we’ve been able to leverage and put people in a position to own these homes.” On Tuesday, the Aboriginal Housing Society was at City Hall in support of the Legacy Ridge funding request. Cory Thomas, one of the project coordinators, estimated 40 people from various community organizations, including Sage Clan, Standing Headdress Society, Health Advocates, and the Lethbridge and Area Metis, offered their support for the project