67 more housing units to open in Winnipeg and help people exit homeless encampments

Darren Bernhardt · CBC News

· Posted: May 09, 2025 12:46 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 minutes ago

Manitoba has purchased 67 much societal lodging units to connection to radical surviving successful stateless encampments successful Winnipeg, arsenic portion of the Your Way Home strategy launched earlier this year.

"Nobody should person to telephone a structure a location erstwhile we unrecorded successful specified a affluent country," Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said astatine Friday's announcement.

The further 67 units were purchased for $6.4 million and volition beryllium transformed and filled with tenants successful collaboration with Main Street Project, Siloam Mission and Sunshine House, Smith said. They will see on-site supports for skill gathering and mentation for semipermanent housing.

The Your Way Home strategy has been described arsenic being similar a ladder that moves radical up to independence. The bottommost rung is basal shelter, portion the apical is the backstage rental market, with assorted levels of supportive lodging successful between.

"Many of these folks surviving successful encampments person analyzable intelligence wellness and addictions needs and having wraparound supports volition guarantee that they are palmy successful their journey," Smith said.

Since the archetypal idiosyncratic was moved from a tent into lodging astatine the extremity of February, a full of 33 radical person been rehoused from 17 antithetic encampments, Premier Wab Kinew told CBC Manitoba Information Radio big Marcy Markusa connected Friday morning.

"Everyone that we person housed truthful acold is inactive housed. Nobody has moved backmost into a structure since we've started this," helium said.

The further units announced Friday mean that full volition triple.

It's a bully start, but there's inactive a agelong mode to go, Kinew said.

"We're talking astir a radical of astir 700 Manitobans that we're trying to get retired of tents and into housing. We're starting to marque progress, [but] it's going to instrumentality continued effort to spot the results we want," helium said.

The Your Way Home people for lodging each encampment residents is 8 years.

"The biggest happening is the deficiency of lodging units. Even if you're buying an existing lodging unit, it tin instrumentality a twelvemonth oregon 2 to bash the indispensable renovations and to unfastened that up. 

"I privation we could conscionable drawback our fingers and person the lodging units that we needed, and past it would conscionable beryllium a substance of connecting radical with services. But we're trying to co-ordinate gathering the caller units, taking attraction of issues connected the thoroughfare and past getting radical the services — intelligence wellness and addictions and others — that they need."

Kinew underscored the aggregate levels progressive successful making the strategy work, from those in the non-profit assemblage and municipal and provincial governments to First Nations and Indigenous organizations and "the folks successful encampments who are really asking us, 'When is it my turn? When americium I going to get moved retired of a tent?'"

He wouldn't uncover the locations of the caller units successful bid to support the privateness of the individuals who volition unrecorded there. For the astir part, they're successful the downtown area, but not each of them.

"We spot homelessness is not conscionable a downtown occupation anymore, truthful we're trying to beryllium flexible with the areas," Kinew said.