New housing in Sarnia aims to tackle disproportionate homelessness

As a lack of affordable housing continues to strain communities across the province, a new 40-unit apartment building in Sarnia aims to help address the gap—particularly for Indigenous residents.

The five-storey Indigenous housing development, located on Confederation Street, plans to welcome its first tenants in February.

Owned and operated by Ontario Housing Aboriginal Services (OHAS), the group is holding an open house on Thursday, inviting Indigenous residents to take a look.

“The project really responds to the urgent Indigenous housing need in the community,” said Chelsea Combot, Senior Director of Policy and Stakeholder Relations at OHAS.

She noted the development was made possible through a partnership with the County of Lambton. “Indigenous households face some of the highest rates of housing insecurity and homelessness across Ontario and the county really recognized this.”

According to 2025 data published by the County of Lambton, Indigenous residents are significantly overrepresented in the local homeless population, accounting for between 21 and 25 per cent of those experiencing homelessness each month. This, despite making up roughly 4.4 per cent of the region’s overall population, Combot said.

That disparity was identified in the county’s Housing and Homeless Plan (2020-2024), which found Indigenous people were underserved by existing housing systems. The plan also highlighted unique barriers faced by Indigenous renters, including “discrimination from landlords”, long waitlists for affordable housing both on and off reserve, and a lack of culturally appropriate housing options.

Combot says this new building will serve as one piece in a larger puzzle to the county’s broader homelessness plan which aims to “support the development of Indigenous-led housing in the community”.

The development includes one, two, and three-bedroom units, prioritized for First Nations, Inuit and Métis individuals and families, Combot says. One-bedroom units start at $881 plus utilities, two-bedroom units at $1,104 plus utilities, and three-bedroom units at $1,236 plus utilities.

“That’s about 80% of market rental rates for the area,” said Combot, adding that several units will be more deeply subsidized through county funding. CBC reached out to the County of Lambton for details on how those units will be allocated but did not receive a response before deadline.

Combot says the building will also include free on-site laundry, indoor bike storage, and will feature Indigenous-inspired design elements throughout.

“From the exterior, you can tell that it’s inspired by Indigenous beadwork,” said Combot. “The idea is that the colours at the top of the building really blend into the skyline, and then throughout the design we used heavy timber accents and that is meant to…really celebrate Indigenous cultural connections to the natural world.”

The open house runs from 1p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Thursday at 940 Confederation Street in Sarnia.