I was actually one of the founding members of Hiyam Housing. I've worked in the non-profit sector for over 10 years now.
I think they're doing some really amazing things here in our province, especially BC Housing. They've started to develop and fund housing on reserve, which was always a federal jurisdiction that the provincial government doesn't traditionally fund. However, they have stepped up and they have started funding.
Part of getting access to that funding meant that you had to be an incorporated non-profit. That was, of course, a little bit of a draw. It was also, like you said before, the ability to separate operations and have their own governance and do that whole part of it as well.
It was also the housing crisis that we were dealing with. We knew that the current model—the single-family home— was never going to meet the need. We knew we had to build up. We needed to do more high density and a variety of different types. Before, we were only doing single-family homes and it was really by date of application. There were all these other people, like people with disabilities or who may need support with addictions, or youth or students. All these target populations were being left out of the current housing program.
The model for Hiyam Housing was to make sure that within the community, every need is being met, essentially. That was part of our mandate. I think so far it's been working really well.