Federal cash boosts key inner-city housing projects

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This article was published 10/02/2025 (207 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An injection of government funding has resurrected housing developments intended to house the homeless in Winnipeg’s inner city.

Main Street Project and Siloam Mission hope to build housing and social support facilities downtown. The developments are part of dozens of proposed projects supported by the City of Winnipeg’s housing grant program, which distributes money from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund.

“We want to be able to offer people housing immediately and skip shelter altogether,” said Ana Ziprick, director of development at Main Street Project.

“It’s definitely a step in the right direction. I mean, we have to do something (to improve housing in Winnipeg). There were a lot of other great projects that were announced, so we are happy about all of that, too.”

Mayor Scott Gillingham announced the recipients of the government grants on Monday, marking the second round of projects approved through the federal accelerator fund.

This round of funding committed $25 million to 12 projects to create 1,418 housing units in downtown Winnipeg, including 633 that are considered “affordable.” An additional 16 projects will receive $33.5 million in tax increment financing through the city’s Affordable Housing Now Program, Gillingham said.

The government said in a news release that funds from the two housing programs will support the creation of 2,487 new homes and more than $1.6 billion in construction. More than half of those homes — 1,295 — will be deemed “affordable.”

The accelerator fund earlier provided $25 million for 11 similar projects announced last September.

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Main Street Project and Siloam Mission each applied for support at that time, but were denied and had to postpone development.

This time around, Main Street Project received $2.5 million in cash and tax increment financing. It hopes to use the money to finance a three-storey addition to its emergency shelter at 673 Main St., Ziprick said.

The development would have 111 housing units with a mix of accommodations, including single- and multi-bed rooms that are private and much safer than communal sleeping spaces typical of shelters, she said.

It would also include wrap-around services and bachelor suites with amenities for longer-term tenants, she said.

The project is expected to cost approximately $30 million. The Winnipeg Foundation has committed financial support, and additional funding is expected from the provincial and federal governments.

“Whatever is left over, we will do a public fundraising campaign,” she said. “We’re confident that everything else will fall into place.”

Structural upgrades to the shelter’s roof and basement are underway in anticipation of the multi-storey addition, she said.

Siloam Mission, which received just over $660,000 in cash and tax increment financing, plans to use the money to create a 32-bed facility to provide transitional housing for people without a home after being in hospital.

The facility would expand Siloam’s 300 Princess St. location, increasing its capability to provide social and medical services. If completed, it would alleviate the strain on the public health care system, said Darren Nodrick, the mission’s director of development.

“This contribution, it does a lot to allow us to move forward. It doesn’t fund the whole project, but it’s a big step,” Nodrick said.

The expansion is expected to cost $3.6 million. Additional funding is anticipated through other partners, but has not been announced, Nodrick said.

“This contribution, it does a lot to allow us to move forward. It doesn’t fund the whole project, but it’s a big step.”–Darren Nodrick

The accelerator fund has also approved the creation of a two-storey facility next to the North End Woman’s Centre at 390 and 394 Selkirk Ave. That space would provide eight units of affordable housing with on-site access to critical resources, services and programming, said executive director Cynthia Drebot.

The new build would double the centre’s current transitional housing capacity. It would feature counselling, parenting programs, life-skills development and “anything that people might need,” Drebot said.

The development is critical for women and gender-diverse people, who are statistically more vulnerable than other demographics, she said.

Drebot said people who live in the North End experience levels of poverty that are more than double those in other areas of the city. The neighbourhood is known to be “the epicentre of where Indigenous women are last seen,” she said.

“The North End community is often forgotten and left behind, but it is crucial this funding comes here,” she said.

It was announced in 2023 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.

Since then, the accelerator program has received 66 grant applications and requests, worth $160 million in Winnipeg.

“We are expecting this year to be a busy, busy construction year with a lot of shovels in the ground and a lot of projects all over Winnipeg,” Gillingham said.

“What we’re really proud of is the partnership that we’ve been able to establish with the federal government to get housing built… Do we need more? Yes, we do.”

All projects funded through the program have a mandatory 12-month turnaround time for building permit approval, he said.

A list of the latest accelerator fund recipients is available online, so too is a list detailing the Affordable Housing Now Program.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.