Eleven projects get federal housing funds

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This article was published 26/09/2024 (344 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The homeless, Inuit women who are escaping violence, Indigenous youth who need transitional housing and supports, and people on low incomes are among the first recipients of a federal housing program.

The federal government and the City of Winnipeg announced Thursday that $25 million from the Housing Accelerator Fund capital grant program has been awarded to 11 housing projects.

They are expected to create 1,135 housing units. About half of the units, 597, are considered affordable housing while 613 of the total will be downtown.

It was announced last year that the city would receive $122.4 million from the federal government to fast-track the development of 3,166 housing units, with at least 931 affordable housing units, by 2027.

“It’s very phenomenal,” said Nastania Mullen, CEO of the Manitoba Inuit Association, one of the recipient organizations.

“We’re still trying to comprehend what this will mean to our Inuit community.”

The association received about $250,000 to help build Our Safe Space, which will have 15 transitional units built for vulnerable Inuit women to allow them to go back to school or find employment.

Mullen said the organization is still raising money to build the project, but receiving federal funding is a huge boost.

He said it has purchased an empty plot of land and hopes to have the doors of the new facility, the first housing initiative led and operated by Inuit people for Inuit people, open by April 2026.

The University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corp. scored three of the 11 projects.

CEO Jeremy Read said the $8.35 million that was awarded will help it to convert the former Parkview Personal Care Home, at 440 Edmonton St., into 180 transitional, social and affordable units; build 128 mixed-income units, including 48 “deeply affordable” units, along with a daycare and commercial space, at the north end of the Market Lands project in the Exchange District; and add 15 units of transitional housing for Indigenous and newcomer women, as well as two-spirit, trans and non-binary people escaping violence.

“It’s a good day for affordable housing in Winnipeg,” said Read, noting the corporation will continue to raise money for the projects.

“It’s significant we were awarded $8.3 million, but that does not make up the entire project: it is about five per cent. The total amount for the projects is $130 million.”

Winnipeg MP Dan Vandal, the minister responsible for PrairiesCan, which distributed the money, said the 11 projects “will provide more Winnipeggers with safe, affordable homes and contribute to the economic vitality of downtown Winnipeg.”

Mayor Scott Gillingham called the new housing projects exciting.

“These projects are focused on affordable housing, deeply affordable housing, rent geared to income, and many other exciting aspects that will get more housing built in Winnipeg.”

The city received 66 applications for $160 million in grants.

Gillingham said more capital grant opportunities are in the works.

“The interest is great. The fund was really oversubscribed,” he said. “More applications came in than we could accommodate this first round, but there will be other rounds to come.”

Christina Maes Nino, executive director of the Manitoba Non-Profit Housing Association, said the announcement “is great news for the city.”

“These projects will create a substantial number of affordable housing units we don’t have.”

Shauna MacKinnon, chair of the University of Winnipeg urban studies department, questioned how long the housing will remain affordable. She said private developers usually sign agreements, which expire in a decade, in return for the funding.

“There are time limits,” said MacKinnon. “All of these agreements are time limited and when they expire, they typically go to market rent.

“That’s part of the reason we have the problem we have now.”

Other projects that got funded are:

• A new development with 165 units at 530 St. Mary Avenue. & 252 Good St.
• A new development at 145 Transcona Blvd. with 154 units designed to house families and people with disabilities experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness
• A Shoal Lake 40 First Nation development with 150 units at the site of a former restaurant at 2675 Portage Ave.
• A parking lot at 346 Pacific Ave. being converted into 128 units of housing
• A largely vacant commercial building at 125 Garry St. that will be converted into a mixed-use apartment building with 126 units
• Apartments at 228 King St. and 261 Princess St. with 54 units
• A 23-unit transitional development for Indigenous youth in the North End

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

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