Brandon to get $175,000 to fund supportive housing

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This article was published 15/01/2025 (435 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new plan to reduce homelessness will include $175,000 in funding to support interim supportive housing in Brandon, the province’s minister of housing, addictions and homelessness, Bernadette Smith, told the Sun on Tuesday.

The announcement is part of the province’s 30-day plan to provide 700 homeless people in Winnipeg with housing, starting next month. Called, “Your Way Home: Manitoba’s Plan to End Chronic Homelessness,” the plan will see the Manitoba government collaborating with local partners and leaders across the province to address the ongoing crisis of homelessness in large and small communities. This includes the city of Brandon, where the wheels are already in motion, Smith said.

“Jeff Fawcett has been there since the beginning, and you have such great collaboration already in Brandon, like you have a community table that comes together, and they’re always organizing and working together around supporting and housing folks,” Smith told the Sun on Tuesday.

“And again, we are continually learning, growing and supporting for what we’re learning here in Winnipeg and then expanding out with our rural partners and municipalities,” Smith explained.

She also confirmed to the Sun that efforts to buy up properties in Brandon are also underway, and that many victims of homelessness experience other related issues, such as substance abuse and undiagnosed or treated mental illnesses. She mentioned the importance of wraparound services that will enable the homeless to seek treatment.

“We’re buying some and leasing some apartment buildings, with supports to make sure that people have access to treatment and recovery so that they can get access to treating the root causes of why they’re in their addictions. Some of them have undiagnosed mental health conditions, or have primary health care. So connecting those people to our health system is huge, and so we’re staffing up.”

Providing adequate housing and services to meet the needs of all communities across Manitoba is crucial to fulfilling the desired mission to end chronic homelessness by 2031, Smith added. She also pointed out that this is a problem that was ignored by the previous government.

“That’s really what this announcement is about, making sure that folks in encampments have safe housing with support, because for too long, we came out of a government that was OK with leaving folks unhoused, without support, and we aren’t OK with that. You know, we heard loud and clear from Manitobans and said they wanted people that were out of the streets, and in safe, secure housing. So we’re delivering on that.”

The government of Manitoba is also using “flex funding,” an initiative that offers transportation and other services individuals in the Wheat City.

“Flex funding is where if someone needs a bus ticket to get home because they get stuck in Brandon, because they’ve come for a medical appointment, or they came for a program and didn’t finish it, but they don’t get the funding to go back home that would kick in.”

» dstein@brandonsun.com

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