Province called on to invest more in affordable housing

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This article was published 19/02/2025 (290 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The vacancy rate for affordable housing in Brandon is at zero, says Spruce Woods Housing Co-op manager Eva Cameron, and Wab Kinew’s provincial government is falling behind when it comes to investing in new spaces and fixing up ones that are aging.

Cameron and the not-for-profit Right to Housing Coalition are calling on the premier to meet the needs of all low-income renters across Manitoba and launched a public awareness campaign on Tuesday in Winnipeg, aimed at Kinew’s government, and the upcoming budget.

“There needs to be an investment in affordable housing,” said Cameron, adding, “we have a three year waiting list and people calling weekly saying, ‘Please help.’

“It’s seniors, it’s dual and single parent families and young ones working minimum wage jobs, who can’t afford a huge amount for rent.

“And it’s heartbreaking to have to say, ‘We’d love to help you, but we can’t,’” said Cameron, who is also a member of the Right to Housing Coalition.

The coalition’s provincial chair Kristen Bernas said the organization’s goal is to advocate for low-income people who don’t have permanent or stable housing.

“We want to address homelessness and provide homes for people who have housing insecurity who are on provincial social assistance or working part-time,” said Bernas.

“We have to provide housing because average rents in the private market are just too high for those low-income folks today,” she said.

Bernas and Cameron said their campaign launch Tuesday included asking advocates of affordable housing to deliver postcards and letters to Premier Kinew and Finance Minister Adrien Sala, calling for more funding for social housing and a support system for those who may need it.

There were funds allocated for new social housing units in the 2024 provincial budget Bernas added, but “it didn’t meet the need.”

Manitoba needs 10,000 social housing units, “two years ago,” Bernas said, but to be realistic, she added, the group’s request was for 1,000 new units over 10 years.

“Last budget we said we needed 1,000 units, and the province committed to adding 350, that’s a third of the need. But we also acknowledge that those are 350 units that we wouldn’t have had, and they are desperately needed,” Bernas said.

Another aspect of the affordable housing issue, Bernas added, is keeping up the maintenance and repair on the existing units, otherwise those units are lost.

Bernas said research has shown $150 million needs to be invested each year for over 10 years to bring the quality of existing social housing to good condition, and last year’s budget contained about half that amount.

The government is committed to housing, wrap-around support, and building and maintaining affordable housing, the province’s Minister of Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Bernadette Smith told the Sun.

“We own a lot of housing in Brandon, and under the former government, there were boards on that housing, and we’ve continued to take those boards off, maintain that housing and get people into those units, so, that’s something that we’re going to continue to do,” said Smith, pointing to $116,000 in the 2024 budget and adding there would be further investments .

Brandon needs at least 650 new social housing units to meet the needs of approximately 230 people who were homelessness in 2024, according to data provided to the Right to Housing Coalition by the Point-in-Time count completed in October 2024.

The report also highlighted that many people live in housing that is unaffordable, in poor condition or overcrowded.

Bernas said she has come up with three requests for Kinew’s government and the 2025 budget, the first one being to create 1,650 units. The second is for $150 million in funds to repair and maintain the existing units.

The third request is to provide social housing tenants access to mental health professionals, addictions workers, and community support workers “who can help folks stabilize in their tenancies.”

If there’s a downside to those requests, Bernas said, it might be that the government looks at funding requests as being too expensive.

“And that’s just the reality,” she said. “But it’s just going to get more and more expensive the longer we put this off.

“The lack of housing is creating a whole bunch of other problems that are also costing our government money too,” she said.

“Research shows that it’s much more cost effective to invest in housing than it is in justice costs, health-care costs, or any other symptoms of homelessness and housing insecurity.”

For more information about the post card campaign in Brandon, call the with Spruce Woods Housing Co-op at 204-728-8998.

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