Albert House project searches for new home

Ken St. George is losing hope he can provide the long-term help he believes is necessary for Winnipeg’s homeless community.

The long-time nurse, who took a stab at civic politics as a council candidate in Charleswood-Tuxedo in 2018, was set to bring the Housing First model to Winnipeg in February 2023.

The housing strategy offers permanent residency, bypassing transitional and emergency shelters, with the goal of getting as many people off the street as quickly as possible and offering them sustained support to recover from trauma, mental health issues and addiction. It’s been successfully implemented in cities across North America and Europe.

St. George’s non-profit Albert House, a proposed $18-million, 84-unit complex made entirely out of shipping containers, was nearing a construction date on the south side of Henry Avenue in the South Point Douglas neighbourhood.

That is until a nearby property owner, as St. George puts it, “rattled some cans” at city hall about the prospect of a treatment centre in the neighbourhood.

After hearing about the complaints, the land owner backed out of a tentative agreement 48 hours before it was to be finalized, St. George said.

“He pulled the rug out … because there was pressure put on him from I guess people he’s known for many years,” St. George said. “Not only did my agreement for the land back out, but my partners, Aboriginal Health and Wellness, became uninterested in the project.

“Here I was holding the bag in February, thinking, ‘What the hell do I do with this now?’”

A spokesperson for the City of Winnipeg said it was unable to provide a comment on the specific situation.

“The city recognizes the dire need for all types of housing, especially those that provide wraparound supports,” the spokesperson said by email. “This is important in all Winnipeg neighbourhoods, including downtown. There have been a number of mixed-income housing developments constructed downtown in the recent past, and we want to see more of this in the future.”

A 2022 census by End Homelessness Winnipeg shows there were 1,256 people experiencing homelessness on a given day. Advocates say the number is understated by about 5,000, most of which live in for-profit facilities or rooming houses, leaving them unaccounted for in the tally.

Several treatment facilities across the city will offer up to two-year stays for recovering addicts but can remove patients from the program if they relapse. St. George said his model would offer wraparound support and welcome residents back to the complex even after leaving or relapsing.

“I tried to find understanding in it, but I couldn’t understand why there was so much effort to disband this project rather than consulting and reaching out,” he said.

“I really didn’t see a problem. I just figured these folks in this community, they see that there’s people struggling, they see them wandering the streets around the shelter, but I guess the separation is (the Disraeli Bridge). They didn’t want that coming on to the other side — even though it would have been fully supported and monitored and there would have been a ton of security involved.”

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The barriers can often feel too large when trying to make a significant impact for the city’s homeless, especially for an individual advocate, said Rick Lees, executive director for Equal Housing Initiative.

Lees remembers a similar situation in 2019, leading up to the construction of the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre in St. James, when area residents and politicians voiced opposition to the idea of putting a treatment centre in the neighbourhood.

“People always want people to do things about people struggling with addiction, just don’t do it in my backyard,” said Lees, who expressed his full support for St. George’s idea. “I’ll often run across people who say, ‘You know, the best thing you can do for these folks is build them something outside of town. They need to get out of the downtown.’

“I think that may be said with the best of intentions, but it’s short-sighted because, really, this is the community. This is where people live and have access to bus service, access to supports and it is their home. So, you’re asking people to vacate their home and go someplace else.

“This is where they feel safe, believe it or not. What we need to do is make is a place where they can also heal, recover and travel that journey.”

In April 2023, St. George was approached about possibly erecting Albert House at 575 Balmoral St., the site of the former Centre Village project, which was built in 2010 to house new Canadians.

Around the same time, Manitoba Housing released a request for proposal to develop social housing; St. George presented Albert House for a 20,000-square-foot property on Selkirk Avenue.

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For both bids, priority was given to Indigenous-led organizations, which Albert House is not. St. George’s project was shortlisted for both, but was not awarded a contract.

“I’ve taken all of this knowledge, put it in a business plan and added infrastructure that makes sense, that’s going to save the government money … So, I would say, yes, I am discouraged, and I do think sometimes I am a little bit crazy for continuing to pursue it,” he said.

However, St. George said conversations with Manitoba Housing regarding his project are still ongoing.

“Another chapter of Albert House begins.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

Joshua Frey-Sam
Reporter

Joshua Frey-Sam happily welcomes a spirited sports debate any day of the week.

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