Thank you.
Good evening, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, and a special thank you to Ms. Gazan, our MP here from Winnipeg, for giving me the opportunity to speak with you tonight.
For my part, I'm going to focus my comments primarily—and probably in total—on the urban indigenous housing experience. I've lived off reserve all my life. I'm 73 years old, and I've been involved in the community as a leader in Ontario, in British Columbia and in Manitoba.
On the housing front, I would never take the position that the need, as expressed by Dr. Christensen.... It's there. It's in the north. It's specific to first nations reserves. It's specific to Métis and to Inuit. It's also very important to the historic urban community, which really developed as indigenous charitable not-for-profit organizations in every city in Canada, and in some towns as well. Here in Winnipeg, that's been over 60 years in the making.
One of our largest housing groups here is Kinew Housing. It's a true urban indigenous housing not-for-profit. I also had a hand in Aiyawin Housing, which no longer exists. Before it left the scene, it had developed over 300 units under the old urban native housing program of the CMHC. Because of the history I have, I will say that ever since CMHC got out of that program, it's never been the same for indigenous housing off reserve. It's a shame. The population here in Winnipeg is projected to grow to 114,000 by next year's census. It's the youngest, fastest-growing population. It's a population with some of the highest need for housing anywhere.
We need innovative approaches to housing for indigenous peoples that can come from us. An example is a project that we're just starting here now for homeless persons in Winnipeg. We call it “the village”. We're going to place 24 units on our property—I am the co-chair of Thunderbird House and also the interim executive director—specifically designed to house individuals struggling with homelessness. We know that many of them have mental health or addictions issues.
This housing will be made out of containers. It will cost about $60,000 per unit. It's a very cost-effective approach. The units will be virtually indestructible. Then we're building all kinds of community supports around these individuals. We're dealing with issues of safety. We're going to have interventions for those addictions—alcohol, drugs and all those things. We're working with the Winnipeg Police Service on the safety side, and with Mama Bear Clan. This is a very holistically thought-out project that evidences the real capacity of urban indigenous citizens to come together, primarily via their urban indigenous charitable not-for-profits.
In that vein, we've brought almost 25 of these organizations into a new urban collaborative called the Winnipeg Indigenous Executive Circle, and now we are part of 32 urban coalitions in Canada. We were in Toronto last year, together as urban groups. We had the United Nations special rapporteur on housing. We were meeting to strongly encourage the federal government to work with us to develop a separate urban indigenous housing strategy.
It doesn't have to be either/or. The current distinctions-based and nation-to-nation process with the federal government between AFN, MNC and ITK does not enable the participation of urban voice, but urban voice, urban experience, is legitimate.
In Winnipeg, as I said, we have over 60 years of experience in developing a myriad of programs and services for indigenous individuals who have moved to cities, who continue to move to cities and who, when they get here, often fall through the cracks and end up homeless. They're coming without educational credentials. They can't get jobs. They're not accustomed to living in a city, and they quickly fall prey to many different types of predation, such as gangs and all those things.
I came back to Winnipeg in 1983 and I've been here since then, except for a two-year hiatus in Vancouver from 2005 to 2007. Winnipeg today is almost unrecognizable in terms of the growth in individuals who are struggling on the streets every day in the life of this city. I can tell you categorically that many of the newer, more innovative approaches to working with these individuals—the most marginalized, the most vulnerable—are now being led by indigenous leaders in this city.
We turned End Homelessness Winnipeg into an indigenous organization, and we have a new five-year plan, but we're working with all the non-indigenous organizations as well. Once COVID—
I'm sorry. I guess I have to stop.
Thank you very much for hearing me out.