Province turning former university building downtown into transitional living units for homeless people By: Chris Kitching Posted: 5:03 PM CDT Wednesday, Mar. 25, 2026 Last Modified: 5:45 PM CDT Wednesday, Mar. 25, 2026 Updates

The Manitoba government is converting a former university building in downtown Winnipeg into a transitional housing complex with units for 118 people who were in encampments or otherwise homeless.

The $24.4-million purchase and renovation project at 447 Webb Place, previously owned by Providence University College and Theological Seminary, was confirmed in Tuesday’s provincial budget, although the site opened a couple of months ago.

“We’ve had a couple of different times where we’ve moved folks in, so a staggered start,” Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said Wednesday.

“We’re moving folks out of shelters and encampments to ensure they’re getting the right kind of supports and the right kind of housing.”

The seven-storey, 87,000-square-foot building has dorm rooms, single units and two-bedroom units.

Smith said the first and second floors will open in May after renovations, and the third and fourth floors will open in August.

She said 24-7 wraparound supports are being offered by staff from N’Dinawemak — Our Relatives’ Place.

The first floor was used as a warming space for about two dozen people prior to renovations. They were moved into a gym, where about 50 people are staying now.

They will move into units on the first two floors in May, Smith said.

“It’s not easy to go from encampment life into a building.”

She said the province is working with the YMCA-YWCA of Winnipeg and other partners to help provide services, such as showers.

The budget document said the building is undergoing capital upgrades to become transitional housing for 118 homeless people, with the goal of securing permanent housing for them.

“(The units) are obviously very needed, especially if they’re geared towards folks who are living in encampments, with the appropriate supports,” said Kate Kehler, executive director of the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, which is located near 447 Webb.

“I guess the larger issue that I have with it is, yes, those folks who are in most need need to have the services directed towards them, but it just seems like there are other instabilities that are happening at the same time.”

She said one is the upcoming closure of the N’Dinawemak shelter at 190 Disraeli Fwy., which will have immediate and long-term impacts.

“It’s not easy to go from encampment life into a building,” she said. “What is needed is an incredible amount of support, flexibility and adaptability because they’re used to having the rug pulled out from under them every single time.”

Premier Wab Kinew announced last week that N’Dinawemak will close April 1 and become a navigation centre to triage homeless people.

Expected to reopen next winter, the site will have 100 shelter beds for people transitioning from encampments into housing.

Smith has said additional shelter space will open at Siloam Mission, Main Street Project and Salvation Army, with no reduction in overall beds in Winnipeg.

The Webb Place project is part of the NDP’s promise to end chronic homelessness in within two terms as government.

The province said its Your Way Home strategy has moved 186 people in Winnipeg and 36 people in Brandon from tents to housing since January 2025.

Overall, the budget announced 215 new social and affordable housing units.

End Homelessness Winnipeg, which is not directly involved in the planning for 447 Webb, said more than 7,500 people were recorded in the city’s homelessness response system in 2025, including more than 4,000 experiencing chronic or repeated homelessness.

The organization, which welcomed funding for housing in the budget, is advocating for additional scale and sustained action to meaningfully reduce homelessness.

“This is the best use for the building I could have imagined.”

“It is important that implementation aligns with established Housing First principles,” End Homelessness Winnipeg said in a statement about the plans for the transitional housing complex. “This includes a strong focus on community integration, access to appropriate supports and alignment with co-ordinated systems.”

Providence announced in October 2023 that it bought the property from the Salvation Army’s Booth University College for $9.5 million, with the intention of expanding programs and offering dormitory rooms on the top floors to international students.

Providence’s main campus is in Otterburne, about 40 kilometres south of Winnipeg. It also has a campus at 294 William Ave. in the Exchange District.

Declines in international student enrolment and revenue forced the private, faith-based university to scale back its downtown operations and sell 447 Webb. The sale was announced last September.

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Providence has said it lost 90 per cent of its international student body after the federal government cut the number of international study permits in 2024 and 2025.

The number of provincial attestation letters allocated in Manitoba — documents proving an international student has one of the reserved spots available in a province or territory — was limited.

The university said on March 16 that it is reducing 10 per cent of its workforce and downsizing academic programs as part of further budget cuts.

In April 2025, Providence’s president, Kenton Anderson, welcomed plans to transform 447 Webb into housing for homeless people.

“I am grateful and pleased that Providence has had a part in this story which is very good for Winnipeg… this is the best use for the building I could have imagined,” he told the Free Press at the time.

— With files from Carol Sanders and John Longhurst

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Chris Kitching
Reporter

Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.

Every piece of reporting Chris 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.