Khaleel Seivwright, star of “Someone Lives Here,” participates in WIFF ’23’s ‘Vital Conversations’

by Ken Pashtushyn

The screening of Zach Russell’s 2023 documentary Someone Lives Here was shown on Sunday,  Nov. 5 at the Capitol Theatre as part of the Windsor International Film Festival’s 2023 Vital Conversations series sponsored by the Libro Credit Union. 

This year’s vital conversations topic is housing which is one of Libro’s four pillars “to growth and prosperity in southwestern Ontario.” 

“We are proud of all of our films at the festival but this one is really close to our heart,” said Vincent Georgie, executive director and chief programmer of WIFF during the onstage introduction of the film. 

Georgie also introduced “the man of the hour” and “the subject of the whole show”: Khaleel Seivwright, 28, to the stage. 

Someone Lives Here premiered in April 2023 at Toronto’s Hot Docs film festival where it won the Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary. 

“In Toronto a few years ago, I decided to build ‘tiny shelters,’” said Seivwright, to the Capitol Theatre audience.  

A carpenter by trade, Seivwright saw a rise in homelessness during the pandemic and decided to construct movable insulated-homes-on-wheels the size of big doghouses. The compactness of the structures were designed to maintain body heat.  

A GoFundMe campaign was started to raise more funds and Seivwright gained a lot of support internationally, building more than a hundred of them until the City of Toronto decided to clear numerous park encampments deeming those ‘tiny shelters’ unsafe.  

“This documentary is sort of the unravelling of that project,” said Seivwright. 

“The end of the film is the beginning of the conversation” is the motto at WIFF – and that is where and when the vital conversation panel discussion Q&A began — where once again Georgie introduced Seivwright, this time as “the star of the film.” 

Georgie began by asking, “What was it like for you, such a whirlwind, open it up for us?”  

“I just went fishing,” replied Seivwright, referring to what happened after the City of Toronto issued the cease-and-desist order to stop manufacturing more ‘tiny shelters.’ 

For Seivwright, it was literally an appropriate way to spend more time in British Columbia with the people he worked with constructing ‘tiny shelters.’  Now they are all working together with the non- profit Two Step Homes to build cabin-communities modelled after the ones in many African countries to house some of the homeless people in Toronto. 

Georgie then asked, “What is it that we so misunderstand about housing and what do we need to understand?” 

“Housing or homelessness?” asked Seivwright. 

“Either/or,” replied Georgie. 

For Seivwright, the myth of just being plain lazy is overwhelmed by the cost of housing.  

“To me, between homelessness and housing,” said Seivwright, “is if housing was more affordable, we wouldn’t have this many homeless people.” 

Mentioning housing as one of Libro’s four pillars, Georgie asked panel member Lori Atkinson, a regional manager of community banking what caught her eye and, “What are you taking away from the film with this story?” 

“I want to applaud you Khaleel,” said Atkinson. “It takes people like you who are innovative as well as courageous and to take an idea and create a spark.” 

Atkinson admits it’s a complex problem that will take individuals like Khaleel, businesses like Libro, all levels of government and educational institutions to work together. One example is the University of Windsor’s involvement in the building of the first 3D printed house in Leamington. 

“I couldn’t even conceptualize the idea, it’s incredible,” said Atkinson. “One of those crazy ideas that was made to happen by a lot of believers.” 

Georgie then asked fellow panelist Rino Bortolin, a two-time Windsor city-councilor, his reaction to the film and does it parallel to what is going on in Toronto? 

“Toronto is just a larger example of what is gripping most cities in Canada,” said Bortolin, currently an adviser for the Windsor Law Centre for Cities. “The thing that we are most fearful and the work we are trying to do at the centre is coming up with more housing.” 

Bortolin points to the ending of the film where the residents are coming back to the city parks. He said all the city council in Toronto wanted to do was to get rid of the encampments and end the homelessness. 

Bortolin also estimates 10,000 homeless people on Toronto’s streets every night where there aren’t nearly enough shelters. 

“When they deemed these shelters to be unsafe, they didn’t call them up and say let’s figure out a way to make them safe,” said Bortolin, in a reference to the film. “They just said get rid of them because at the end of the day they didn’t want to see them.” 

Georgie asked Seivwright one more question before going to the audience: “Right now in Toronto, are you seeing things getting better, getting worse, or stagnating?” 

“Right now, it’s definitely getting worse,” said Seivwright. 

Seivwright said there is a lot of conversation about looking for more options and the City of Toronto came out with their winter plan, which is basically adding a few more cots to existing shelters and opening some more warming shelters. 

“It’s going to come up short and it’s a really difficult situation,” said Seivwright.