Heroic effort

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This article was published 15/11/2021 (1173 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A proposed village of 20 tiny homes for Winnipeg’s homeless veteran population cleared a not-so-tiny hurdle last week, when the city’s property committee passed a motion to sell an acre of city land in Transcona to the Homes for Heroes Foundation.

The land is just north of Transcona Boulevard, west of the Transcona Library. City council and executive policy committee will determine whether the sale is approved later this month. In October, the committee ordered a report on declaring the land surplus to free it for the $400,000 sale, paving the way for Wednesday’s decision.

The national non-profit had been working with the city for about three years to get to this point, says CEO and founder David Howard, who pointed out that at least 200 veterans are living unsheltered in Winnipeg.

A city spokesperson said the public service was first aware of Howard’s foundation’s request to purchase city-owned land in July, when a motion was moved by the Assiniboia Community Committee. After that motion, the property committee directed the public service in September to work with the foundation to find city-owned properties within the city of Winnipeg for their specific program, which led to Wednesday’s passed motion at the property committee.

“It is also worth noting that the proponent appeared in delegation and proposed to pay market value (between $1.1 million and $1.4 million) for the site,” the spokesperson said. “The suggested price is reflective of the land’s approximate market value, discounted due to the requirement of servicing and site remediation costs.”

Howard said he felt “cautiously optimistic” about the latest movement, but was concerned that more hurdles were yet to come. Though he hadn’t received the passed motion as of Friday morning, Howard said that under the proposed measures, his organization could be responsible to cover costs related to subdivision, servicing and remediation, in addition to the investment for the purchase of the land.

“We’re happy with the committee, that they went forward with this, and we’re happy we are getting the land, but there’s still a lot of work to do,” Howard said. And while the project has found champions in city councillor Kevin Klein and the public, Howard said, “The city has to come to the table.”

In other jurisdictions, Howard said negotiations have been smoother and quicker. A similar project in Calgary is up and running, and one in Edmonton is set to open in December. In the span of one year, the organization has worked with the municipal government in Kingston, Ont., plus the provincial government, to secure land and funding for a 0.6-acre tiny village.

On Nov. 10, the Kingston Whig-Standard reported the Ontario provincial government approved nearly $2 million toward the project. “The village is to be built during the next year,” the Whig-Standard reported.

“It took a year there to get land in our hands,” said Howard. “In three years, we’re still not to the point we got to in Kingston in just 12 months.”

Howard expressed this on the day after Remembrance Day, and as Winnipeg experienced its first major snowfall of the year, signalling another brutal winter season’s arrival for the city’s unhoused people.

According to Howard, the issue of veterans experiencing homelessness is rampant in the city, with over 200 veterans represented in the homeless population, many of whom are Indigenous. The 2021 interim street census, conducted by End Homelessness Winnipeg in a 24-hour window in April 2021, found 1,127 people experiencing homelessness, 66 per cent of whom (about 740) were Indigenous and 2 per cent (about 23) were veterans. Because it’s a moment-in-time survey, it’s highly likely the numbers are significantly higher.

Meanwhile, the wait list for Manitoba Housing was 6,021 province-wide as of Nov. 1, with 1,546 vacancies in Manitoba Housing units. Of those vacant units, only 130 are available for rent, with the remainder “in various stages of repair,” a provincial spokesperson said.

Putting more thought toward secure housing is something the city is currently pondering, not just for those experiencing homelessness, but those experiencing poverty: council is currently eyeing its first “poverty reduction strategy,” with some goals — identifying city-owned land for affordable housing projects — that seem to align directly with the tiny village proposal.

While the proposed strategy was viewed by many as a long-belated initiative by the city, some housing advocates said its desired outcomes can only be achieved through greater funding from all levels of government. “We can’t end poverty within existing (funding),” Dana Connolly of Ka Ni Kanichihk told the Free Press this week. “It’s so important for us now to put our money where our mouth is.”

Mayor Brian Bowman told the Free Press’s Joyanne Pursaga that the strategy was designed to fit within the city’s existing budget. “We’re trying to do what we can within the resources and jurisdiction of a municipal government.”

With the tiny village project, though Howard is pleased with recent progress, costs are also a matter of concern: his organization has been willing to pay for the land at market value, but unknown additional costs could be the source of financial hang-ups and further delays.

Putting costs in a different perspective, Howard said addressing homelessness is in the short and long term a cost-saving initiative, as well as a life-saving one: shelter costs, emergency services, health care and other costs related to homelessness can be significantly reduced if people get stable housing.

“It is in their best interest to partner with (groups like us),” he said.

City council and the executive policy committee will determine the next steps of that partnership later this month.

— with files from Joyanne Pursaga

 

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca