As I mentioned, you're looking at three different pillars on that. One is the hard to house. That just needs to be a facility so that they have a roof over their head, a place to go home to every night. Another part of it is for seniors and persons with disabilities. They can't afford to purchase homes, and they become dependent upon the system. The system puts them in places that are not necessarily acceptable.
We have a number of federal houses that are sitting empty that probably need asbestos abatement done on them and multiple renovations, but the potential to utilize these facilities and have the funding to make it work through our centres could start to alleviate some of these issues we have in the smaller communities. If not, then we'd need the construction of a new facility, because currently the one we have in Hay River where most people are placed is—I don't know if you have ever been to East Hastings, in downtown Vancouver, but the first four floors of this place are a replica of what you see there. We have a population of 3,600. We have high crime rates, prostitution, everything. When they fall off the grid, when they are couch surfing, they fall into that group, or when they come out of treatment they get put into that same facility where they are surrounded by drugs and alcohol.
It's on multiple levels, but if we can just get them right before they're homeless, get them when they come to us, and get them into a safe place, then we can provide the ongoing supports. We do counselling. We do programming. We do just about everything to address those needs.
It's not just the house. It's the ongoing supports we need for them. We need to help our youth. We're losing them. We have a gap between the ages of 20 and 29. It's a lost generation. The friendship centres are able to provide those supports for them, but we just don't have the funding to be able to do everything we possibly can.