4 hours Ago By Matteo Cimellaro
An old federal office building that was once filled with public servants could soon be on a path towards a new life as social housing for Ottawa’s urban Indigenous community. The Jackson Building, located at 122 Bank St. in Centretown, may be in the very early stages of becoming a robust affordable housing and services provider developed by the Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition.
Joan Riggs, a facilitator for the Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition, said the project’s genesis came from the COVID-19 pandemic when the coalition’s outreach workers supported unhoused people in the ByWard Market. The outreach workers did what they could to help, but housing remained a critical need for many. Riggs and the coalition are now pushing to convert the Jackson Building into housing for some of the most vulnerable urban Indigenous community members.
In addition to transitional housing, the plan could include a healing lodge for women escaping violence, as well as family dwellings. There could also be housing for First Nations people who leave their home community to work in Ottawa for short periods of time. “We don’t want to be just building housing, we want to be building community,” said Riggs, whose coalition represents several Indigenous organizations in Ottawa, including Inuit and First Nations non-profit housing corporations.
Unlike other housing-hungry cities in Canada, Ottawa has an ample supply of former office buildings owned by the federal government, which is looking to offload property to those willing to develop it into housing. To do so, the federal government launched the Canada Land Bank, which lists dozens of properties in the National Capital Region. The properties are at varying stages of what the government calls its “disposal process.
” Jullian Paquin, a spokesperson for Public Services and Procurement Canada, said the government is currently “seeking input from the public” on how the Jackson Building could be developed. “No decision has been taken on the future of this property,” Paquin added. The Jackson Building, which has floor area of 19,460 square metres, has been a long-standing fixture of downtown Ottawa for more than a century.
The nine-storey tower was built in 1920 by lumber baron J. R. Booth before it was later sold to the Canadian government.
The Royal Canadian Air Force used the building during the Second World War. In the decades after, the Jackson Building housed several departments. Now, the building sits largely empty.
There is a small group in the building, temporarily, but it will become vacant very soon, according to Graeme Hussey, the director of affordable housing for Windmill Development. Hussey is working with the Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition to develop the Jackson Building into an all-purpose social housing for Indigenous communities in Ottawa. Although Hussey expects a competitive process that will determine who develops the property, he hopes a social impact criteria set by the federal government will help the Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition’s proposal.
“Selling the building for the highest price is probably not the best use of that building anyway,” Hussey said. Hussey notes that a lease or sale process for the Jackson Building could occur as early as the fall or winter of next year. Riggs also said that the Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition has contacted Algonquin College to collaborate on student housing.
For the coalition, the memory of Savanna Pikuyak , who was killed in Ottawa in 2022 by her roommate while studying at Algonquin, was a tragedy that can never happen again. “We’ve got to have a better plan around making sure [students] don’t just have a house or a room, but they’ve got a community they’re coming into that’s going to care for them, and it’s safe,” Riggs said. Another supporter of the project has been MP Yasir Naqvi, who was just re-elected in Ottawa Centre in the federal election.
Naqvi, who supports the Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition’s bid, said there have been “positive conversations with the appropriate ministers” and that he is working to expedite the development of the Jackson Building. The Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition has met with officials from a variety of departments as well as ministers’ staffers to discuss their plans for the building. Everyone in those meetings “felt that this is absolutely the appropriate thing to do,” Naqvi said.
“I think it will be the most important contribution to our downtown revitalization,” he added. Hussey said that having elected officials champion affordable housing projects like the Jackson Building proposal can go a long way in securing funding for them. “I think what I find exciting is Jackson Building has the potential to take a lot of community members that are really struggling, we see them on the street, and put them in a place where they can get real support and housing,” Riggs said.
“It is a powerful feeling to have a sense of community because for us, community is love.” RelatedHow Canada Wins: Housing in former federal office buildings can revitalize Ottawa neighbourhoodsFederal government to use 22 properties in Ottawa for housing.
