Province to open 250 rentals for homeless

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This article was published 16/12/2023 (747 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government is putting up $2.8 million for emergency housing over the winter.

The goal is to help people who are currently homeless and those who are at risk of losing their home by providing shelter and support.

Housing Minister Bernadette Smith said the money will create 250 supportive rental housing units in Winnipeg, Brandon, Swan River and Portage la Prairie in the coming weeks, which will be turned into long-term housing.

Many of the units are vacant Manitoba Housing suites. Others involve non-profit housing or private housing where the government will pay part of the rent. Addictions and mental health programming will be folded into the mix.

“More people are going to be getting supports that didn’t get supports before,” Smith said at a news conference at the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre on King Street.

“We’re talking about people who are unhoused, out in encampments, in shelters, people who need to get supports that wouldn’t necessarily have those supports.”

Currently, 128 units are vacant and 32 units will soon be available. The remainder will open up in a few weeks.

She said the province would work with support agencies to select applicants who are most in need, including women and children.

A new collaborative circle, co-chaired by the minister and the Southern Chiefs’ Organizations crisis response team lead Carol McCorrister, is developing support plans for the initiative.

The team, which includes Indigenous organizations, the homeless service sector and women’s organizations, will focus on a plan to support homeless women and gender-diverse people. The aim is to help them secure permanent housing.

The province will also spend $2.9 million on supports specifically for women and the LGBTTQ+ community, but details won’t be announced until 2024.

As minister, Smith was given a mandate to work toward ending chronic homelessness in Manitoba over the next eight years.

“We have learned that while homelessness is a visible and complex issue, we have to address all of the often hidden intersections, like poverty, trauma, discrimination, mental health, addictions and sexual exploitation, in order for solutions to be lasting,” Smith said Friday.

The minister said she has been meeting with agencies and Indigenous organizations, as well as people who have been homeless, since the Oct. 3 election.

“Throughout these conversations, we have felt that the urgency of knowing that winter is coming. Already we have seen two of our relatives succumb to the elements,” Smith said, referring to the deaths of two people who were living in a tent in a North Point Douglas park on Monday.

Jason Whitford, CEO of non-profit End Homelessness Winnipeg, also pointed to the danger of winter and the deaths as evidence of the urgency of tackling the matter.

“Sometimes it takes its toll on front-line service providers, but we get up every morning, we rise to the occasion, we rely upon our spirituality, the support of one another and the meaningful impact that that work has,” said Whitford.

Emergency services were notified two people had cardiac arrest in Joe Zuken park. The bodies of the homeless people were found at about 1:15 p.m. Monday.

Their names, and details about how they died, haven’t been released.

Residents said the tent had been there since October. A man in his 40s, named Alex, lived there and a woman visited.

» Winnipeg Free Press