Mixed reaction pour in from community members around 5 proposed supportive housing sites

The City of Winnipeg has begun phase one of a joint plan with the province to bring more supportive housing units online in Winnipeg.

Five sites throughout the city have been selected for rezoning applications located at 75 Poseidon Bay, 546 Sherburn St., 1168/1172 Plessis Rd., 626 Stella Ave., and 2546 McPhillips St.  The plan has garnered mixed reactions from community members.

The city’s plan is to identify and rezone the lands, and then the province will step in to select nonprofits to provide services. 

“There’s some misconceptions out there that this might be a homeless shelter or something like that, and it’s not, it’s housing,” said Lissie Rappaport, the manager of the housing accelerator fund for the City of Winnipeg.

“We have a housing crisis here in Winnipeg, and we’ve certainly heard from Winnipeggers and Manitobans that they want to see something done about this.  We’re proposing to build 15-30 units of supportive housing across 5 sites and to quickly bring this housing online to support people.”

Public info sessions have been taking place throughout this week, where community members have voiced concerns. In the River Heights neighbourhood, an anonymous letter has been circulating urging residents to oppose bringing this kind of housing into the area.

“Neighbourhood change is really hard for people.  When you live in a house in a stable neighbourhood, when something is proposed that is different, there’s an adjustment period for sure.  We’re also proposing supportive housing, and there’s a lot of stigma attached to that, and lower-income people have a lot of stigma attached to that,” said Rappaport.

Don Woodstock, a resident near of of the sites, says, “Don’t create fear and panic in the neighbourhood for the sake of doing what? Putting 25 units to try and displace an entire neighbourhood when I can go downtown, I can go anywhere off Sutherland, I can go anywhere in one of these neighbourhoods, and find 100 units that just need to be retrofitted.”

Mario Lopes, the president of the Dufferin Neighbourhood Association adds, “I’m in favour because at the end of the day we have a huge demand for not only affordable but deeply affordable rents in the city, and obviously there’s always going to be a demand for that type of housing, unfortunately there’s going to be an even greater demand, unfortunately we’re experiencing a lot of people that are homeless right now.”

The info sessions will conclude Thursday night, followed by a public hearing for the rezoning applications on September 12.