The federal government is investing $16 million to support the construction of 214 new apartments, including 86 social housing units, in downtown Winnipeg. Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland visited Winnipeg to meet with project officials.

The construction site located at 308 Colony Street will deliver the housing units during the winter of 2025, according to project managers.

It will enable more than 200 households to settle in at a time when the social housing sector is in crisis.

"The agreement we now have with the City of Winnipeg will allow for the construction of thousands and thousands more housing units here in Winnipeg". A quote from Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister of Canada

This funding is in addition to $122 million in federal funding to accelerate the construction of new housing, including 900 affordable housing units, announced in December 2023. ELSEWHERE ON NEWS: The Canadian in Washington to win more than a “participation ribbon”.

The city also received $109 million from the provincial government in the summer of 2023 to build a new boutique hotel and affordable housing in downtown Winnipeg.

In Winnipeg, more than 5,300 people were on the waiting list for social housing in 2023. In addition, nearly 50,000 calls were made to Manitoba Housing's security services between January 2020 and October 2023.

A step in the right direction

Social housing advocates say they acknowledge that the construction will be beneficial for the region, but that the city needs more social housing. "We need 100 social housing units," he says. "We need 1,000 more next year, and that has to be done with existing social housing ," says community activist Sel Burrows, who also wants the renovation sector to be developed to meet the city's needs.

For his part, the director of strategic initiatives of the Equal Housing Initiative , Sébastien De Lazzer, specifies that it is necessary to break down this segmentation between housing and health.

He believes that the construction model needs to be rethought and stresses the importance of integrating health services into affordable housing. From the moment we build social housing, it is a sine qua non condition to also provide a [health support] structure , adds Sébastien De Lazzer.

With information from Victor Lhoest

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2051543/financement-logement-abordable-centre-ville