French newcomers offered longer-term transitional housing

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This article was published 18/02/2019 (1893 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

French-speaking newcomers to Canada are getting more time to settle in and get their bearings thanks to transitional housing welcoming them in St. Boniface.

The non-profit Abri Marguerite Inc. has opened an historic home on Rue St. Jean Baptiste where francophone immigrants and refugees can stay until they’re ready to make their own way in their new country.

“People can stay for three to six months to help them acclimatize,” said CEO Ray Simard. The residence is divided into four one-bedroom suites and one two-bedroom suite that are rented at low cost to families while they look for work and find more permanent housing in other areas of Winnipeg or Manitoba.

For the last 10 years, there has been shorter-term accommodation available where families can stay for two or three weeks right after they arrive, said Simard.

“Two to three weeks wasn’t enough,” he said. In that time, the newly arrived francophones had to pick up local life skills, get health cards, set up bank accounts and learn to get around using Winnipeg Transit.

“We didn’t have any choice,” Simard said. “We had to move them through.”

They’ve long wanted a space where families could stay longer and spend more time in the French community, getting acclimatized to the area and start going to school, he said.

The new furnished transitional housing suites are managed through a partnership with the federal government-supported organization Accueil francophone. It works with French-speaking refugees and immigrants to Manitoba to help them with everything they need as soon as they arrive in Winnipeg.

And the need is growing, as Manitoba becomes a more sought-after destination for French-speaking immigrants, Simard said.

“A huge number of francophones are looking at Manitoba as an option,” said Simard. Between 2007 and 2016, the number of immigrants who say French is their official language increased 293 per cent, from 32 to 126. French-speaking immigrants and refugees typically come to Canada from a number of African countries, such as Algeria, Mali, Cameroon, Morocco, and Côte d’Ivoire, or from European countries such as France and Belgium.

On Tuesday, there weren’t any families at the transitional home, said property manager Boris Ntambwe. When Ntambwe arrived in Canada from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2005, there wasn’t anything like it, he said. Many people stayed in hotels and couldn’t register their kids for school without an address and an agreement with a landlord.

Now they’re welcome to call the house on St. Jean Baptiste Street home long enough to settle in.

“While they’re there, the whole adaptation process is easier,” said Simard.

Abri Marguerite bought it, renovated it and and brought it up to code with help from a $75,542 capital investment grant from the federal Homelessness Partnership Strategy administered by the City of Winnipeg.

“It’s a good news story,” Simard said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca