First of all, I want to mention that Merlin Watt has joined us. He organized a small informal meeting last night that Tony and I were able to join. We had some people there who are living in poverty. We've had people who were working on it. It was very useful, so thank you for putting that on last night.
I want to talk about housing a little bit further, then, since we're going into that area, which everybody we've met with has identified. Mike Kirby from the Mental Health Commission indicated that as a priority, it would be number one. Number two would be that the social infrastructure in Canada is not designed for people with mental health issues, episodic-type illnesses. We heard from the Canadian Association for Community Living and the Canadian Paraplegic Association that housing is a key priority.
You all have some understanding of this and some expertise in this. I know I'm getting short on time and I'm sure we'll pick this up later, but let me ask you a specific question: if we're going to support housing, what is the federal government's role?
It needs to support housing, and the government has indicated $1 billion for social housing, but it was very quick to say that this is not a long-term strategy, but a short-term one. It's a long-term need, obviously. Is it in construction of housing for people who have specific challenges, whether mental health issues or addictions? I was going to ask about the role of subsidies for existing housing for people to get into, but rather than go over my time right away, maybe I'll come back to that, Chair, and somebody else may pick up on that.
Thank you.