Klein to double down on derelict homes

Kevin Klein promises to set tight timelines for owners to clean up vacant and derelict homes, if he’s elected to become Winnipeg’s next mayor.

The owner of each building would have six months after it becomes vacant to file an action plan to repair, renovate or remove the structure entirely by the one-year mark.

Those who fail to do so would face heavy fines and possible expropriation, he said.

“Hundreds of empty buildings sit boarded up, waiting to burn, like the one behind me. A vacant house is a fire trap, it’s a crime hub,” said Klein, pointing out the charred remains of a home on Alexander Avenue Friday.

Through his proposal, the city would also ask the province to let it take the title of empty properties without compensation sooner.

The city is currently enforcing its vacant building bylaw at 829 structures, including 656 residential and 173 commercial properties.

Klein noted empty structures have attracted many fires in the past. Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service crews battled blazes at six vacant buildings in just three hours on May 12, noting the demand put a huge strain on their resources.

In 2025, the city recorded 166 fires from Jan. 1 to Oct. 31, including blazes at vacant homes, sheds, garages and garbage bins, as well as vehicles and grass fires.

“As your mayor, I will treat every vacant building as a risk, as a file that must be closed, repaired, reoccupied, rebuilt or taken down,” said Klein.

“A vacant house is a fire trap, it’s a crime hub.”

Owners would not be charged a demolition fee if they build affordable homes at the same site, while the city would also complete demolition approvals within 15 days, he said.

Lots with no immediate construction plans could be cleaned, seeded with grass and left empty.

Klein would also double the city’s current empty building fee once a property sits empty for more than two years and triple it once three years pass, with unpaid fines added to property tax bills.

That fee currently charges the owner one per cent of the property’s value after one year of vacancy and rises by an additional one per cent of the property’s value each year, up to a maximum of five per cent.

Klein expects his strategy would more than pay for its own costs, through increased fees and savings on emergency responses to vacant structures.

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At another campaign announcement, mayoral contender Mike Vogiatzakis promised to convert a large warehouse into 100 tiny apartments to provide transitional housing for people battling homelessness and/or addiction.

Vogiatzakis said those accommodations would include private living units, shared washrooms and showers. The facility would also provide 24-hour support, including treatment for mental health concerns and addictions.

“I want to clean up the streets of Winnipeg. We need to give the homeless people a place to live,” he said.

The candidate estimates the initiative would cost about $8.75 million to build, plus another $4.8 million to operate each year. He did not name an operator.

If the effort relies solely on public funding, he would seek provincial and federal support. However, he would also seek funding from entrepreneurs, some of whom he said have expressed interest.

“We need to give the homeless people a place to live.”

Vogiatzakis would also seek funding to build 100 separate tiny homes, ideally near the apartment structure, starting work on both goals “right away.”

“My plan is to build the centre far from the Main Street of Winnipeg, where the issues are happening. We need to move people away from their everyday people that they meet, everyday habits that they have,” he said.

Vogiatzakis said the homes would be located outside of residential neighbourhoods.

“(It would be) in an area that’s a little bit secluded, where there’s not a lot of housing, where there’s not a lot of businesses,” he said.

The facility for that “indoor village” within a warehouse would have locked doors, meaning its residents would have to complete or quit any programming to leave.

Another mayoral candidate promised to ban city councillors from using their ward allowances to promote themselves.

Don Woodstock said the politicians could no longer use the discretionary fund to buy self-promoting ads or pay for targeted social media campaigns.

Ward allowances are intended to cover each councillor’s employees and office supplies, among other expenses.

Councillors could still use the fund to support community centre programs, block parties, community barbecues and grassroots safety initiatives, said Woodstock.

Advance voting for the Oct. 28 election will begin Monday. All locations are posted at winnipeg.ca.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

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.

Every piece of reporting Joyanne 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.