Weighed down by debt, Forward House raises alarm

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/11/2022 (1060 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg supportive housing agency is in debt and in danger of closing, potentially putting its residents struggling with addictions and mental health out into the streets.

Forward House, which has helped thousands with drug and alcohol addictions since 1995, currently has 19 men receiving its help.

“We’re now in crisis,” volunteer chairman Robert Kreis said Monday, blaming both a drop in donations and a rise in additional expenses due to COVID-19, as well as a recent broken furnace at one of its houses.

“We are in the red. Salaries haven’t been paid for several weeks and some suppliers and vendors have been patient with us.”

Kreis said the program is calling on all three levels of government for emergency funding support.

Forward House has annual costs of about $400,000, but provincial Employment and Income Assistance only pays $19.35 per day “to house, fee, and provide support for each participant.”

“Donations have not been able to keep up with rising costs… We need help. We’ve never asked the government for money, but we are now,” Kreis said.

“All our funding has come from churches and donors. As any non-profit would tell you, they need consistent funding and only the government can provide for basic operating costs. If not, there will always be problems.”

Kreis said the organization has 28 total beds and is a vital link in recovery, offering second-stage housing for men for between six months to three years.

Last week’s throne speech by the Manitoba government commits to increasing and supporting up to 1,000 addiction treatment spaces.

It said most of the spots will be new, and will be rolled out as soon as possible.

However, Kreis said, if any such funding is given out in April, for example, it will be too late for Forward House. “We need help now.”

Greg Kyllo, executive director of Bruce Oake Recovery Centre in Winnipeg, said problems at Forward House and other second-stage treatment centres create problems for the men it treats in the first stage.

“This is devastating,” Kyllo said. “There already is a lack of supportive housing for stage 2 housing. We are advocating and asking for more safe, supported housing.”

While there are places other than Forward House which offer second-stage housing in Winnipeg, “there isn’t enough.”

“Since we opened (in 2021), 114 men have completed our treatment program and more than half of them need supported second-stage housing. But we haven’t been able to find suitable safe housing,” Kyllo said.

“It means that after these men have completed our 14- to 16-week program, we’ve had to keep people for up to six months while we find suitable safe housing. That takes away a treatment bed. It’s not good.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca