Housing advocates are celebrating the announcement of a National Housing Strategy, but there's a call to action as well.

About 50 people crammed into a board room at Crossways in Common on Furby Street yesterday to discuss what the housing strategy means and what they want out to see out of it.

Gladiola Kehler lives in the area. She says she's concerned about a lack of access to affordable, social, and accessible housing, but she's excited to see the strategy, which she says brings attention to the issue.

"If nothing else, it's created a broader platform to address some of the issues that are of concern to me. And I think it's created a greater visibility. I think in a lot of circles it's something that's invisible because we don't talk about it. So I think what this has done has put this sort of more to the forefront," she says.

Kehler says she's interested in ensuring policies and ideas put forth will be implemented and enforced in a meaningful way.

Yesterday's get-together was put on by Winnipeg's Right to Housing Coalition. Social Planning Council of Winnipeg community animator Christina Maes Nino, who opened the discussion, says they wanted to celebrate, having done a lot of work to get to this point, but they also want to mobilize and be ready.

"We need the municipality to do some planning... we need the province to say these are our social priorities... and then the federal level needs to provide some leadership, as they're doing through the strategy," says Maes Nino. She says community groups at the grassroots level know where the gaps are, and they need to be ready to work with government.

The federal government announced its national housing strategy last month. Its targets, among others, include: 530,000 households removed from housing need, 300,000 households provided with affordability support through the Canada Housing Benefit, and a 50 per cent reduction in estimated number of chronically homeless shelter users.