Devcore unveils plans for innovative tiny homes community in Gatineau

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A Gatineau developer has unveiled plans for a $5-million community of tiny homes, built out of shipping containers, to address the city’s homelessness crisis.

The Devcore Group is pioneering the development called Village Transition, which it hopes will set an example for cities across the country.

The development is being billed as the first of its kind in Quebec, and the largest tiny homes community in Canada.

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“The Village Transition model could be replicated across major Canadian cities facing this problem, ensuring no one sleeps outside this Christmas,” said Jean-Pierre Poulin, founding president of Devcore and a minority owner of the Ottawa Senators.

Poulin hopes the project, led by the private sector, will begin construction this fall and be completed before the first snow of the year.

“We’re fast-tracking this process,” he told reporters, “but we have to keep the pedal down.”

Devcore is enlisting local shareholders to buy and furnish the containers, which will be rented out as transitional housing to people who are now homeless. Rent will be calculated based on an individual’s income.

The village, made up of 60 containers, will offer units of 100 and 150 square feet, each equipped with heating, air conditioning, internet access, a bed, sink, toilet, fridge and storage space. Larger units will feature double beds, full kitchens and small porches.

The village will also include two communal kitchens, laundry facilities, a greenhouse, garden, dog park, bicycle repair shop and “intervention centre” with social and psychological support services.

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Devcore has asked the City of Gatineau to lend it the required land in a parking lot next to Centre Robert-Guertin for two to five years and to provide water, sewers and power to the site.

Gatineau councillor Steve Moran, who represents the Hull-Wright district, welcomed the initiative Thursday, but warned it must still be approved by council.

“It’s innovative, and it shows a lot of leadership on the part of Mr. Poulin and Devcore,” Moran said. “It’s pretty exciting, what’s being proposed, but we have a lot of steps before we get there.”

Jeneviève Caron, deputy director of the Outaouais health authority’s mental health and addiction programs directorate, praised the project as quick, durable, effective and innovative.

The Devcore proposal is highly unusual in that it does not rely on federal or provincial grants and would largely be financed by the private sector. (A community or 50 tiny homes opened last year by the City of Peterborough was backed by $2 million from the Province of Ontario.)

“Homelessness is a real-estate problem,” Poulin told reporters Thursday, “and I think it’s up to the real-estate industry to step up to the plate … There are lots of individuals who have made lots of money because of the City of Gatineau, and now it’s time to give back.”

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Poulin said he believed many homeless people could regain stability and find jobs and regular apartments once they have the foundational benefit of homes.

Residents of Village Transition will have to adhere to a code of conduct. The village itself will be managed by a non-profit group, Transition Quebec.

The village is expected to house 100 people — almost half of the estimated population of chronically homeless people in Gatineau.

Poulin characterized the village as the second phase of the project Devcore launched in December, when it established the tent city Camp Guertin as an emergency housing solution for homeless people about to face winter.

Devcore drew on its business contacts, raised $350,000 and launched Camp Guertin with city approval. The camp played featured 48 heated tents with camp beds, electric blankets and heaters. The camp was fenced, and security and social services were provided.

No one at the camp died from exposure during the winter, and at least two people were saved from drug overdoses. About two dozen tents remain on site.

Two camp residents, Mathieu Boucher, 46, and his partner, Jade, 40, came Thursday to examine the detailed architectural drawings of the tiny homes. Both marvelled at them, and Jade was moved to tears. Boucher said he intended to apply for one of the homes.

“It would mean everything,” he said. “When you have a place to rest, this is when you can have a job. Going to work is not easy when you live in a tent.”

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