A Winnipeg non-profit organization aims to create hundreds of social housing units over the next decade as part of a new strategy, which includes a potential partnership with the owners of the Winnipeg Jets.
Siloam Mission has set a goal of creating between 700 and 1,000 new housing units over 10 years. The non-profit’s plan includes a variety of housing types to serve a range of key groups of people.
Siloam, which operates a shelter for homeless people in the Exchange District as well as other supportive housing facilities, was expected to launch its new strategy at the Fight for Charity event at the RBC Convention Centre on Saturday.
The organizers of the fundraising boxing event chose Siloam Mission as this year’s beneficiary, and Siloam decided to use the event to launch its new strategy, said CEO Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud.
“Ultimately when we talk about … moving people into a home where they can thrive, and that housing first model, we just don’t have the units in Winnipeg,” she told CBC on Thursday, ahead of the Saturday launch.
Winnipeg has three social housing units for every 20 low-income residents, Blaikie Whitecloud said, a number that puts the city behind others on the Canadian Prairies.
“We’re launching this housing strategy without the funds to make it happen yet, but with the initiative and intention of being bold on solving homelessness by getting adequate units online for the people that are currently experiencing it,” she said.
Siloam produced a video for the Saturday launch which includes an endorsement from Mark Chipman, the chairman and CEO of Winnipeg Jets owner True North Sports and Entertainment.
Earlier this month, Chipman told CBC News he and Winnipeg Jets co-owner David Thomson, one of the wealthiest people in Canada, were exploring ways to help provide more housing for people living in shelters and in need of assistance to find, and keep, a permanent home.
“When you look at [Siloam’s] plan, it just makes a lot of sense,” Chipman says in the video.
“It’s well thought out. It just gives me, personally, and our group a lot of confidence to be able to work alongside Tessa and the board.”
Their strategy targets five groups: seniors, people seeking sober housing, people at risk of becoming homeless and in need of emergency housing, youth aging out of care, and households led by women.
Siloam has already begun work on its strategy. In February, it took over the lease of the historic Odd Fellows Home on Roblin Boulevard in Charleswood.
The Assiniboine Links — an assisted living facility for seniors that had operated in the building — announced last year it would be closing.
Siloam took possession of the building in February, where it now operates a 32-unit supportive housing facility for people 50 years and older — the first batch of housing to be included toward its goal.
Those units are in addition to 105 Siloam was already operating.
‘A leg up’
Monica Richard is a housing support worker at the Odd Fellows facility, who in the past received support from Siloam’s programs.
The mother of five says she turned to drugs as a way of coping with the death of her mother and brother, which led to her becoming addicted and eventually homeless.
After going through Addictions Foundation of Manitoba programming, Richard moved into Siloam’s shelter, where she stayed for five months before transitioning into her own place.
Siloam’s housing strategy could help people in situations like hers, she said.
“Had this already been implemented, when I found myself homeless … and wanting to be housed sooner than later, to get my children back to me, maybe I could have done that quicker,” she said in an interview.
A resident in one of Siloam’s other housing facilities, who asked not to be identified, said trying to find housing while homeless is a difficult and time-consuming process. Working with an agency like Siloam, with an inventory of low-barrier social housing, could make that process easier, the resident said.
“I think that would help a lot of people actually get a leg up rather than, you know, going about trying to navigate out of the trenches,” he said.
Blaikie Whitecloud says Siloam will work toward its housing goal “project by project,” with a mix of new builds and retrofits in locations throughout the city.
Projects are estimated to cost $150,000 to $250,000 per unit. One project under consideration, with 50 units, is expected to cost about $10 million, she said.
If Siloam reaches the high end of the target — 1,000 units — Blaikie Whitecloud says that would be enough to accommodate roughly a quarter of the estimated homeless population in Winnipeg.
Siloam Mission has set a goal of creating between 700 and 1,000 new social housing units over 10 years as part of a new strategy, which includes a potential partnership with the owners of the Winnipeg Jets.