The CEO of one of Winnipeg’s largest homeless shelters says he’s happy with the federal government’s National Housing Strategy.

Siloam Mission’s Jim Bell admits he hasn’t had a chance to read through the entire strategy yet, but he’s encouraged the feds have decided to focus on building and maintaining affordable housing units and funding support systems for underlying issues related to poverty, such as drug addiction and mental health issues.

“It’s a very complex situation but the fact that the federal government is supporting these things is positive,” Bell said. “There will be some housing models that need supports all the time and others only once or twice a week depending on where people are with their mental health or addictions issues.”

The federal government says the strategy would follow a human rights-based approach, which includes a National Housing Co-Investment Fund, a number of community housing initiatives and a Canada Housing Benefit.

Ottawa is allocating a total of $40 billion for the 10-year strategy. $15.9 billion of that – which was already earmarked by the federal government – will go to the National Housing Co-Investment Fund to repair existing rental housing units and to develop new housing units. The federal government says that’s expected to create up to 60,000 new homes and will repair up to 240,000 existing homes over the next decade.  

The Canada Housing Benefit will be jointly funded by the federal, provincial and territorial governments. The feds estimates it will provide an average of $2,500 per year to each household. Ottawa estimates the Canada Housing Benefit will grow to support at least 300,000 homes when it concludes 2028.

The federal government has also pledged an additional $4.3 billion to the strategy, if the provinces and territories agree to match it.

Bell is confident the Pallister government will chip in to match the additional federal funding, as they addressed homelessness and mental health and addictions supports as a priority in their recent Speech from the Throne.

“There is an opportunity for everyone to come to the table together,” Bell said. “It’s going to take collaboration from all parties and we can work together to identify those support systems that need funding.”

The federal government hopes their strategy will cut chronic homelessness by 50 per cent.

Bell says that’s a tall order, but he’s happy the federal government is dreaming big.  

“I’m really pleased to see that their goal is an aggressive one,” Bell said. “Once we get to 50 per cent, then we can start getting after 100 per cent.”

Bell says on any given night upwards of 1,400 people are living on the streets in Winnipeg.

The strategy plans to introduce new legislation prioritizing the housing needs of Canada’s most vulnerable groups and will introduce a federal housing advocate to identify actions to address barriers faced by those groups.

It will also implement a National Housing Council, a Community-Based Tenant Initiative to provide information to tenants facing barriers to affordable housing and a public engagement campaign to highlight benefits of inclusive communities and housing, set to begin in 2020.

Most key elements of the National Housing Strategy won’t kick in until after the next federal election in 2019.