From abandonment, to hope

Centre Village was lauded as an architectural wonder for its eye-catching boxy design, and as a revolutionary way to house newcomers to Canada, when it opened in 2010; but residents found it cramped and ill-suited for family life.

They abandoned the 25-unit complex on Balmoral Street in droves, forcing it to be boarded up just 12 years later.

The site become a magnet for drug users and the criminal element as politicians grappled with what to do with it as the need for housing in the city skyrocketed.

Now, its fate has been determined.

Manitoba Housing has donated the site to the Winnipeg Housing Rehabilitation Corp., a non-profit organization founded in the late 1970s to develop affordable housing. It will receive $2.2 million to demolish it and build 30 new units for two key groups: Indigenous youth and young adults who are leaving the child welfare system and expectant parents at risk of being involved with the system.

The formal announcement will be made today.

The provincial government will provide $577,000 annually to keep rent at a geared-to-income level and to fund 24/7 on-site support “for the foreseeable future,” Housing Minister Bernadette Smith said Friday.

“We know that, when kids go into care, that they’re likely to be in all sorts of systems throughout their life, whether that’s the judicial system, or ending up missing and murdered,” she said.

“This is really preventative, supportive, and really to wrap the supports that are needed and to make sure that the trajectory of their life is changed in a way that they’re not going to continue in these cycles.”

In April 2023, 16 months after the property was boarded up, Manitoba Housing issued a request for expressions of interest and offered to donate it to a social housing organization. In August, in the dying days of its government, the Progressive Conservatives offered $2.2 million to redevelop the site.

Smith said WHRC was chosen in March by using a points-based process that compared the seven proposals the province received.

“When we saw this proposal, it really excited us… (it) helped to fill that gap in terms of supporting kids in care so that they didn’t become homeless, but also had the supports in terms of making sure that kids with kids that were in care, or were pregnant, that we could help support them,” she said. “Breaking the cycle is super important.”

The WHRC will partner with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and Spence Neighbourhood Association to make sure future tenants will have 24/7 support on-site, such as tailored workshops or one-on-one programming, depending on their needs.

“For a lot of people… they need that support at 10 o’clock in the evening or two o’clock in the morning. If they have somebody they can go to, there is a greater opportunity for success,” said WHRC executive director James Heinrichs.

In 2021, the corporation was tasked with redeveloping a former housing complex into affordable units at 260 Toronto St., using funding from all three levels of government. The 120-year-old building was demolished and a new structure was built. Today, there are 17 affordable units being leased by at-risk women.

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Heinrichs credits year-round, on-site support staff as one of the main reasons the building is a success.

He promises the Centre Village site will reap the same benefits.

“It’s going to look very different,” he said. “It’s going to have, I think, a much safer outlook on the community and what that looks like.”

Currently in Manitoba, 9,196 children are in care, 78 per cent of whom are Indigenous.

AMC Grand Chief Cathy Merrick called the project “historic.”

She said “no-gap” supports for youth in care — in which they head directly out of the CFS system and into housing where people are there to help them —are desperately needed.

“There’s always a place to start. Even though we take baby steps on a lot of the issues, they’ll come,” she said. “I’m always optimistic about the beginning of something better for our people.”

Today’s funding announcement was supposed to be held April 26, but had to be delayed because a body was found at the site. Police said the death was not a criminal matter.

An elder will hold a smudging ceremony at the space Wednesday, Smith said, to honour the life of the man who died and pray for his family, and to honour the site’s future.

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Not far from Centre Village, investors have purchased the Balmoral Hotel with the promise of revitalizing it into a medical hub for patients from northern First Nations. The renovation currently underway involves removing the beer vendor, lounge and VLTs.

Smith, who was in care as a youth, said it feels like the core area is approaching revitalization.

“I just think of spring and this blossoming of the community,” she said. “A renewal, really.”

A requests for bids to demolish Centre Village will be issued in the next few weeks. Occupancy is expected in late 2025 to early 2026.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press.

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