The member of parliament for Windsor-Tecumseh says that conversations have begun on trying to maximize surplus federal properties in the region to build more affordable housing.
On Thursday afternoon, Irek Kusmierczyk was joined by Cynthia Summers, Chief Executive Officer of the Windsor Essex Community Housing Corporation, to discuss the plans at the HMCS Hunter Building at 960 Ouellette Avenue.
The former naval armed forces facility has been sitting empty since 2015, when the naval reserve moved to their new location at the end of Mill Street.
Kusmierczyk says he's already had conversations with the Department of Defence, which owns the property, along with the Ministers of Procurement and Housing about its potential.
"My message really to my colleagues and ministers in Ottawa is let's work as quickly as possible, let's get this property unlocked. Let's get it into the hands of organizations, developers or non-for-profit organizations, or public entities that can convert this property as quickly as possible into affordable and attainable housing in our community," he said.
Last week, the federal government announced that it will allow more than 2,800 homes to be built on six of its surplus properties across Canada.
That commitment would put the federal government back on track to the development of more than 29,000 housing units on federal lands by 2029.
Kusmierczyk is confident things are moving in the right direction to get this done sooner rather than later.
"So we've had conversations with the Canada Lands Company, we've had conversations with the Minister of Housing and Minister of Defence, and the message to them is very clear," he continued. "Let's move as quickly as possible to get this property converted to affordable housing to the benefit of our community."
The building is already zoned for residential with the potential for 18 storeys, but Kusmierczyk believes that could even grow to 24 storeys.
Cynthia Summers says Windsor has a real need for housing, like most community across Canada.
"Currently there's over 7,000 people on our central wait list looking for housing. So this is an extremely exciting opportunity to provide housing to those who right now don't have housing or a place to call home. And look at this area, with retail, schools, transportation, it's the perfect location," she said.
She says looking at the ability to build up vertically at the HMCS building, the outcome would be very significant.
"We would be taking people off the list, and I would envision it as a mixed community. So affordable, attainable, maybe even market, definitely there's a need for student housing we hear about that all the time. So I would think it would have a dramatic impact on the area and revitalize the area as well."
Both Kusmierczyk and Summers say this is a real opportunity to address the issue of affordable housing, while also providing a spark downtown.
That's due to HMCS being right in the core, close to things like Windsor Regional Hospital, the University of Windsor, and being on a direct transit route
Kusmierczyk also mentioned that it isn't just surplus federal lands they're looking at, they're looking to get the province, the City of Windsor and community partners engaged on all available surplus lands to try and get more housing built.