Early Summer Housing & Urban Issues News

• Campaign calls for an End to Homelessness in Budget 2022: The End Homelessness in Budget ’22 campaign, lead by Make Poverty History Manitoba and the Right to Housing Coalition, is calling for the province to invest to end homelessness. Centrepieces of the campaign include a call to invest in 300 net new units of publicly owned rent-geared-to-income housing (social housing) each year for at least the next three years and to raise the Employment and Income Assistance (EIA) basic needs rate to increase incomes to at least 75% of the poverty line.

• Tax Agreement for Naawi-Oodena: Treaty One Nations signed an agreement with the City of Winnipeg on taxes for Naawi-Oodena, the First Nations-led redevelopment of the old Kapyong Barracks site. The agreement recognizes the right of the First Nation governments involved in Naawi-Oodena to collect business and property taxes as the City of Winnipeg does.

• City to support First Nations-led redevelopment of downtown Bay building: The City of Winnipeg reached an agreement with the Southern Chiefs Organization (SCO) to support the redevelopment of the downtown Bay building. The Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgohn redevelopment will receive tax rebates and City provided streetscaping. This project is an ambitious undertaking. In the past, The Bay has offered to sell the building for as little as $1 with no takers. An appraiser in 2019 estimated that repairs to bring the building up to code while respecting elements protect by its heritage designation would cost $111 million and that the building had a market value of $0. The SCO plans to get social value out of the space with about 300 affordable housing units planned for a mixed-use development. This will include a museum and living art gallery for First Nations to tell their own story as well as two restaurants.

• YIMBY Winnipeg speaks up for proposed apartments: YIMBY Winnipeg has spoken up in favour of the proposed 490 Shaftesbury Boulevard apartments in Tuxedo. There’s been some heated opposition to the proposed Tuxedo apartments, with signs sporting slogans including “no apartment blocks” and “single family houses ONLY“. YIMBY Winnipeg has provided a positive perspective on the benefits of infill, such as more property tax revenue for city services, fostering walkable and transit-oriented communities, and energy efficiency and other environmental benefits.Our spokespeson, Dylon Martin, has been interviewed by CTV News and the Winnipeg Free Press on this.

“[The Tuxedo apartments] provides an option for them to find new accommodation in their neighborhood. It facilitates a more compact urban form that leverages existing infrastructure while generating tax revenue for city services, and it’s in a pretty strategic location with the Grant Avenue frequent transit route being part of the transit master plan that council adopted last year.” Martin told CTV News.

• New City Council motion to advance longer-term solutions to homelessness: Councillors Shawn Nason (Transcona ward) and Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge – East Fort Garry ward) are putting forward a motion to consider longer-term approaches to homelessness. This motion will seek to create at least 150 low-barrier transitional housing units, create a safe consumption site, and establish more community-based crises stabilization spaces and services. Nason initially put forward a motion to dismantle bus shelters at Kildonan Place mall, but has reconsidered this approach following discussion with homelessness advocates and community members.

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