Metis businessman takes aim at Saskatoon’s housing crisis

Andrew LG Hunter is tackling the current housing crisis in Saskatoon, one house at a time.

He’s using his business to try to create more livable spaces in the inner-city for Indigenous people.

Hunter, a Métis entrepreneur from Saskatoon, is the owner of Homes by Hunter, a home renovation business which deals in rental properties, new home construction, and exterior and interior renovations.

“If you’re going into the housing market now, it’s nearly impossible,” said Hunter. “Many people who make a good income are still unable to afford to buy a home.”

In Saskatoon, it’s rare to find a home under $400,000 and newly built homes typically start at around half a million dollars, he said.

Hunter wants to make things more accessible especially for those families who don’t have those deep pockets.

Saskatoon’s inner city is ripe with derelict homes.

Combining his entrepreneurial spirit and his compassion for humanity, Hunter is investing both his time and money into purchasing those boarded up, vacant, damaged houses no on else wants.

But his vision doesn’t stop there.

Hunter is renovating those houses and adding basement suites, to accommodate more families and provide the new homeowners with an addition revenue source.

The end goal also benefits the city as a whole.

“As these homes are boarded up, they’re causing crime in the area and depreciating the value of the homes around them,” he said. “So we’re going into these neighbourhoods and bettering them with whole revamps or renovations, as well as putting in a basement suite. So we’re adding more suites to the community so more families can afford to live, we’re giving equity back to the family, plus the value of the homes in the area goes back up.”

Hunter recently completed a flip on a house that had been sitting in vacant for four years, which needed a complete renovation.

He bought it for $68,000 and after putting $120,000 worth of work into it and sold it for $250,000, which is considerably less than the typical entry price for a home in Saskatoon.

“There are plenty of people on the east side (of Saskatoon) that are already tackling renovations, but no one really cares to tackle it on the inner city,” said Hunter. “So that’s my goal.”

He believes greed is compounding the housing crisis. Rental prices are constantly increasing while many new homes are being built quickly with cheap materials to maximize profits.

“New homes are already rotting away,” said Hunter. “They’re put up so fast, water is seeping in, they’re rotting from the inside out. People are seeing these pretty, wrapped homes and thinking this is great. But its just glue and chips and wood.”

He believes many of the older homes were built using stronger types of wood making them last longer.

Hunter wants to see more Indigenous families getting into reliable, safe homes.

“The more people that we can get buying homes that are Indigenous, the better,” he said. “There’s no reason why the land isn’t put back in the hands of the Indigenous people.”

Motivation to see Indigenous people happy and living in better spaces is a big part of it, but Hunter can’t deny that he wants to make a name for himself in the process.

“What I’m after – I want to make the history books,” he said. “You don’t do that with greed and screwing people over. You do that by helping others.”