The provincial government has earmarked $5.25 million in funding for new transitional housing in downtown Winnipeg and Transcona for women escaping violence.
The funding will create 46 units of social housing, with $2.25 million going to a downtown four-storey, 15-unit building project led by the University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corp. that will be second-stage transitional housing for Indigenous and newcomer women and children who have experienced gender-based violence.
The other $3 million will be used for a new six-storey, 154-unit mixed-income complex in Transcona that will include 31 rent-geared-to income housing units. Several will be designed to be fully accessible.
“The success of these projects will be felt when individuals and families have found safe, supportive homes that will set their life along a new path,” Housing Minister Bernadette Smith said Friday morning.
The province is also providing $419,000 annually to the UWCRC and $334,000 to the Winnipeg Housing Rehabilitation Corp. in rent supplements to ensure both buildings are able to continue offering units at a rent-geared-to-income rate.
The UWCRC will collaborate with three local organizations (Ikwe-Widdjitiwin, Family Dynamics and New Journey Housing) to bring in and support new residents at the downtown building, while the WHRC will collaborate with Siloam Mission to offer spaces to homeless Manitobans living with disabilities.
“It’s a pleasure that the Manitoba government is back involved in social housing,” said James Heinrichs, the WHRC’s executive director.
Heinrichs said the investment will also help the community organizations involved provide support to the tenants once they are housed.
Support is critical for success, he said.
“We want to ensure that there’s successful tenancy,” he said. “We want to ensure that there’s wraparound support services, and we believe that that’s a fundamental piece to ensuring their success and preventing homelessness.”
Construction is set to begin in the fall.
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
