Siloam Mission housing strategy aims to create hundreds of units for vulnerable Winnipeggers
CBC
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.
