The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing was in Sarnia-Lambton this past weekend for an elaborate riverfront fundraiser to address the local homelessness issue. But he made no funding announcement.
Instead, Minister Paul Calandra said his ministry has had preliminary discussions with Lambton County social services and more talks are anticipated in August to find a local housing solution and get people off the streets.
Calandra said he is familiarizing himself with Indwell Community Homes, a charitable group that Lambton recently partnered with to tackle new affordable housing projects. Indwell is known for its success in providing homes for the hardest-to-house using so-called wraparound services like addiction counselling and mental health support.
“I have been touring some Indwell sites in other parts of the province to better understand their model,” Calandra said.
He was keynote speaker at a $5,000-a-table breakfast fundraiser under the Bluewater Bridge in Point Edward called the Mackinac Extravaganza. It was organized by the Sarnia Rotary Club, which also dished up the largest Mackinac Pancake Breakfast in its history, just across the road.
Under a spacious white tent, the minister was joined by about 200 guests and local political leaders from every level of government. Guests dined on pastries and champagne, raising at least $85,000 for the second year in a row, money that is earmarked for affordable housing projects, said organizer Heather Martin.
“We have a foundation that has been set up to accumulate funds to assist other non-profits that want to get started with an (affordable housing project) and need that little boost of (money),” she said. The fund currently has more than $150,000. The Sarnia Community Foundation also has a similar building fund with about $200,000.
“Events like this are helping us to get there,” Martin said.
Graham Cubitt, Indwell’s director of projects and development, was also a guest speaker at the Mackinac Extravaganza and said the housing crisis, opioid crisis and mental health crisis facing communities across Ontario seem out of control.
“But the positive thing we have to understand is that there are solutions,” he said. “Building supportive housing that integrates health supports actually changes people’s lives and transforms them from homeless to not homeless, from outsiders to community to insiders to community.”
Hamilton-based Indwell has 50 years of experience building supportive and deeply affordable housing, successfully providing homes for more than 1,200 people experiencing homelessness.
“In 2022, we had the privilege of opening 300 apartments of supportive housing,” Cubitt said. “We looked at the stats a year later and 96% of tenants who’d come out of homelessness, sleeping rough, encampments, discharged from psychiatric wards…were still living with Indwell a year after they’d moved in.
“That’s a huge result for people who are often described as the unhouseable,” he said to a round of applause.
“It’s not just about putting up buildings,” Cubitt added. “It’s about building community around our tenants, bringing the supports, the healthcare, in highly effective ways.”
Cubitt said Indwell is working with Lambton County and its 11 municipalities to turn the tide on local homelessness. This year’s goal is construction of 100 units, he said.
“This is going to take support from our MP, our MPPs, and Queen’s Park because we need capital investment and we need health investment,” said Cubitt, appealing directly to Calandra.
With enough resources, Sarnia-Lambton could have 300 supportive units built within the next three years and “literally end the homelessness crisis locally,” he said.
Cubitt added that grassroots events like the Mackinac Extravaganza bring the community together and are a catalyst to get affordable and supportive housing projects off the ground.
Calandra agreed and said that “bringing the community with you” and generating support and excitement for affordable housing projects is “a game changer.”
Events like Saturday’s Extravaganza are crucial, he said, pledging to attend again next year. “This is really awesome. They’ve done a really good job.”
The fundraiser was held along the St. Clair River as hundreds of sailboats passed by on their way to the starting line for the 100th annual Bayview Mackinac Race.
Ideal weather conditions made for a spectacular view that attracted more people to the waterfront than usual.
Not only was there a record number of 332 sailboats registered for the Mackinac Race, Rotary Club members serving the traditional pancake breakfast to the north of the bridge could not remember a busier year.
The Mackinac Extravaganza itself was an expanded version of last year’s event with 18 vendors open to the public outside the tent, the Re/Max hot air balloon and large displays by the First Hassars of London and Sarnia, as well as multiple first responders.