Disraeli shelter to transform into ‘navigation centre’ to triage homeless

An inner-city shelter located next to the province’s meth detox centre will close next month and transition into a “navigation centre” to triage homeless people.

Premier Wab Kinew announced Thursday that N’Dinawemak – Our Relatives’ Place, at 190 Disraeli Fwy., will close April 1.

“This is the natural evolution of a long-term plan to move people who are currently using that facility as a shelter to other locations,” Kinew said of N’Dinawemak, which opened in December 2021.

“It’s all part of a bigger plan.”

Kinew said the closure of the shelter, which has a capacity for 200 people, will make room for further upgrades, including expanding addiction prevention efforts and introducing additional services.

He highlighted two major projects planned for the site. The first involves expanding the existing recovery units later this year. The second is converting the space into a navigation centre.

“It’s all part of a bigger plan.”

The premier said individuals leaving encampments would go to the Disraeli site first to access identification, housing, and medical services, including pregnancy testing.

Kinew said part of the effort involves reaching expectant mothers before they give birth. He added that the lifetime cost to the health-care system for a baby born with HIV is about $1 million.

“The big part of what we want to do on the street is stop moms-to-be from transmitting HIV or other sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections to their babies,” he said. “In a rich country like Canada, it is completely preventable.”

The province recently opened a 72-hour detox centre at the site. Described as a “protective care centre,” the premier said the decision to relocate shelter residents is also intended to improve community safety.

“We are reorienting the services we have in this area, but the goal is to end chronic homelessness, it’s to get people out of tents and into homes, to get people off of street corners and into treatment, and to get people who are disrupting emergency room waiting rooms out of those waiting rooms and into a more appropriate care setting,” Kinew said.

He added that each individual staying at the shelter will be transitioned to a yet-to-be-identified location.

The province will continue providing shelter, housing, and health-care services to vulnerable people on city streets, Kinew said.

Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said additional shelter space will open at Siloam Mission, Main Street Project and Salvation Army.

Siloam and Main Street Project did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

Smith said the province is targeting next winter for the navigation centre to be up and running.

Once reopened, it will include 100 shelter beds for people transitioning from encampments into housing.

Smith insisted there would be no reduction in overall shelter beds in the city.

“We’re working with our shelter providers to ensure that we are continuing services,” Smith said.

N’Dinawemak employees said there was no comment from the organization. They were told Thursday morning the shelter would be closing, according to sources.

Smith didn’t anticipate any jobs being lost.

“We want to work with them and make sure that if they’re moving, wherever they choose to seek shelter, they have that relationship there.”

“They have relationships with these folks,” Smith said of the staff and those accessing the shelter. “So as they they go onto Main Street Project or Siloam Mission, they might not have relationships there. They want to see a friendly face. So we want to work with them and make sure that if they’re moving, wherever they choose to seek shelter, they have that relationship there.”

A man who spoke to the Free Press outside of the shelter said he has lived there for three years, and knew about the change a couple of months ago.

He said he doesn’t want to leave, given its proximity to other services, and said the provincial government should open up another shelter nearby.

The transition, Smith said, has been underway for several months, with 193 people at staying at N’Dinawemak identified for housing.

This effort is separate from the province’s Your Way Home strategy, launched in January 2025, which aims to move about 700 people living in encampments into housing.

The province said accommodations have already been secured for all individuals; 23 people remain at N’Dinawemak and will be moved in the coming weeks.

Smith said that people have been incrementally moved in cohorts beginning last summer.

Deputy Progressive Conservative leader Jeff Bereza said more money should be put into helping people get out of the throes of addiction.

“We need more treatment facilities. We need to help navigate that,” the homelessness critic said. “And what the (province’s announcement) may be doing is just causing more of a problem.”

Bereza said his party is for more treatment beds.

“But to just close this down, or shut this down, where are these people going to go? We have to look at a long-term solution.”

Bereza said the news, and the province’s push for a supervised drug consumption site, is only supporting people to remain in their addiction.

Officials have reported that 100 encampments had been dismantled, with 187 people transitioned into housing, Smith said. An additional 80 individuals were moved from shelters into social housing.

The latest data from End Homelessness Winnipeg, which monitors monthly inflows and outflows, show 931 people in the city are currently experiencing chronic homelessness, reflecting a net increase of 27 individuals in February.

— with files from Carol Sanders

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca