—because we need the housing right now. As you all know, if you've dealt with housing in the non-profit sector—and I used to, prior to this life—when you build housing, it takes several years, at best, to get a project off the ground, especially if it involves rezoning. It takes sometimes five years, six years, or 10 years to get a project off the ground.
We have a housing crisis. Right now, the City of Toronto projects $65 million in terms of its cost to deal with the housing aspect of the irregular asylum seekers, a large portion of whom are going into hotels. I want to ask this question. Instead of putting that money into a hotel, which will be gone after people leave, why don't we invest that money in a permanent building: redirect that money, purchase a building, and make that available for asylum seekers when the influx is here? Then, when they're not here, you can make that available to local people for transition into permanent housing, or even regularize the refugee program as we've seen with the Syrian refugees. When they first came, many of them were also put in hotels. Instead of doing that, get a permanent building, or a series of permanent buildings, in which you can house asylum seekers and refugees coming through.