Last Updated Jan 31 2006 04:24 PM CST
CBC News
Community groups in southwest Winnipeg met Monday night to work on a strategy to turn empty military houses at Kapyong Barracks into low-income housing.
The 300 homes on the 65-hectare site, west of Kenaston Boulevard north of Grant Avenue, have mostly been empty for two years, since the Second Battalion Princes Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry relocated to Shilo, near Brandon.
Last November, the Canadian Forces Housing Agency decided to rent out the houses while decisions were being made about the long-term plans for the site. Temporary tenants are currently filling about half of the homes.
But Clark Brownlie with the River Heights Ministerial Action Group, which called Monday night's meeting, told the crowd at the meeting that there's no reason the rest of the houses should be empty, even in the short-term.
"When winter came, and we saw smoke coming out of the chimneys and the lights on and nobody home, then we started to think about all of the families we knew about who could definitely use that housing," she said.
"[We] started to try and push for something to be done on an interim basis, while the wheels that turn slowly in government decide what's going to be done with the total Kapyong land."
Brownlie hopes the joined forces of the groups that met Monday night – including aboriginal groups, refugee groups and others looking for good-quality, low-cost housing – will help ramp up the pressure on the Department of National Defence.
There's been no word from the Canadian Forces about the long-term plans for the land. A number of projects have been proposed for the land, including a condo development and two different urban reserves.