City identifies five properties for supportive housing initiative with province, non-profits
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The City of Winnipeg will set aside five properties to create supportive housing, with the goal of helping vulnerable people avoid homelessness.
On Tuesday, the city announced it will partner with the province and non-profit organizations to provide shelter for people facing unique housing challenges, including refugees and youth exiting provincial care, as well as people who are leaving hospitals, moving out of encampments, at risk of gender-based violence or coping with mental-health issues.
“(For people who are) at risk, this is going to start the ball rolling on potentially helping with homelessness or (preventing) the potential… risk of becoming homeless,” said Coun. Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood), chairman of council’s property and development committee.

JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS
Matt Salo and his son Alex play on a city-owned site at 546 Sherburn St. which has been earmarked as a location for a supportive housing unit for homeless and people requiring support services in Winnipeg. Salo is in favour of more housing but would like this particular site to remain a community green space.
The municipal government will provide the city-owned properties and rezone them to allow the housing, while city council could also be asked to approve funding, a document on the city’s website notes. The Manitoba government will choose non-profits to provide supportive services to tenants, decide which sites will be home to which groups and provide capital and operating funds, it states.
A third-party developer is expected to design and build the homes, while non-profit organizations would manage the facilities and provide on-site support services.
“Having supportive housing sites is really critical and it’s a proven solution to be able to stabilize neighbourhoods…. The idea is to move forward quickly on accelerating supportive housing to respond to the housing crisis,” said Lissie Rappaport, manager of the city’s Housing Accelerator Fund office.
The five sites are located at 546 Sherburn St., 1168/1172 Plessis Rd., 626 Stella Ave., 75 Poseidon Bay and 2546 McPhillips St. The Sherburn, Plessis and Stella properties are currently vacant, while housing will also be placed on land near a McPhillips fire station and replace a parking-lot recycling depot on Poseidon, Rappaport said.
Matt Salo, who lives on Sherburn Street, said the vacant lot selected to add the homes on his street has become a de facto gathering space. Children use the empty, grass-covered property to play, and neighbours gather there to hang out, he said.
“I guess my thoughts are pretty conflicted,” he said. “Obviously, you need initiatives for low-income housing and supportive housing in Winnipeg, but I will say, just on a very personal level, that little piece of green space is such a boon for our block.”
Many of the homes on Salo’s block have limited yard space, leaving kids to travel about two blocks to the Minto Athletic Grounds to play outside. He said it is safer and more convenient to take his two young children to the empty greenspace just steps away.
“Losing that would be a real disappointment,” he said.
Another Sherburn area resident said she did not want to see the unit constructed.
“I’m not against housing for people, I just don’t trust whenever the government or the province does something. They say something, and then it turns into something different,” said the woman, who declined to provide her name.
Some details of the new housing projects are still being worked out.
It has yet to be decided if the supportive services tenants receive will include addictions treatment, Rappaport said.
“We’re not targeting, explicitly, people dealing with addictions but certainly there’s overlap with different populations,” she said.

Duncan said he’s confident the province will have plans in place to ensure each site is a safe and welcome addition to its surrounding community.
“There (are) concerns around ensuring that people we are trying to help are not a safety risk to the community and are not a safety risk to themselves…. (It’s important that) proper supports are in place,” he said.
Each housing facility is expected to have a similar design that can be tailored to fit each site, with private rooms/suites, shared activity spaces, a communal kitchen/dining area and office space. Support staff will provide on-site services for “up to” 24 hours per day, the city says.
City officials will host three public consultation sessions about the plan at Transcona East End Community Centre (4-6 p.m. Sept. 2), Cindy Klassen Recreation Complex (5-7 p.m. Sept. 3) and Bill and Helen Norrie Library (4:30-6:30 p.m. Sept. 4).
The city expects to rezone the five sites to allow housing in September, pending final council approval. There will be a single hearing held on the specific plans for all five sites, not individual public sessions, said Rappaport.
“This is really just a way to move forward quickly on (addressing) the housing crisis, particularly for people experiencing homelessness,” she said.
The city expects to start construction of the first supportive homes next year.
— With files from Tyler Searle
joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca
X: @joyanne_pursaga

Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.
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