WINNIPEG — The lot Jesse Bettcher lives on in Winnipeg’s North End used to be a pile of burnt rubble. Same with the one next door. And the one across the street. But he’s now the proud owner of a two-storey house with blue-grey siding and white trim, so new the orange construction fencing is still out front. It’s a dream home for Bettcher, and the latest hope for a city seeking to knock down, clean up and revitalize neighbourhoods that have seen hundreds of homes left vacant, leading to safety hazards and worries about the future. He bought the house as part of a pilot project aimed at creating affordable home ownership. It let him and his family move out of a rental that he said was falling apart. “It’s surreal, it’s like an Airbnb almost,” said Bettcher, standing on the dirt of his front yard. He said that with a credit score below 500 he had a lot of help, including from a provincial credit union, to buy. What the family used to pay in rent, they now use for a mortgage, money effectively passed on to the next generation. “It’s not for me,” he said. “It’s for the kids.” Many hands helped build this house. The city sold the lot to Purpose Construction for a dollar. The social enterprise built the house with Step Up Construction and Build Inc. One of the first projects was Bettcher’s house. Another is the one across the street from him, which has been cleared and getting ready for construction. There has also been money from the province, and advocacy from local leaders such as Darrell Warren. “If people see new houses built on these lots, they’ll notice the change, and that gives people living here hope,” said Warren, head of the William Whyte Neighbourhood Association. He has been pushing for the program to reverse the growing number of derelict properties that risk making more people leave. “If you just keep seeing boarded-up derelict property, you’re going to think ‘Well, I don’t want to live there,’” said Warren. People in William Whyte do see a lot of those properties. The neighbourhood has about 300 boarded-up buildings or empty lots. That is up from 60 when Warren began working on the issue in 2017. That makes for a little over one in 10 properties in the neighbourhood that spans six by nine blocks, and accounts for a sizable proportion of the 800-plus vacant buildings in Winnipeg. Vacant buildings have been a growing concern in the city as a combination of a flight to the suburbs, aging inner-city housing and challenges with poverty and substance abuse make the problem worse, creating concerns for local residents. “Where my mind goes — a lot — is to the kids,” said Tracy McKenzie, standing at the corner of the Pritchard playground, which was bustling with children one recent evening. She said she worries about the young people who are tempted to explore the vacant houses. A house across the street from her was deemed a trap house before burning down with some animals dying inside. “There’s so many things you have to be worried about happening within the houses, and all the fires that are happening,” she said. Fires are not only dangerous, but costly. In 2024, the city says it spent $14.5 million fighting 232 fires in the William Whyte neighbourhood. A few blocks from the park, past many manicured lawns, flower beds and a community garden in a vacant lot, stands what Warren calls his nightmare property. It’s a row of three houses, all owned by the same landlord, that have together seen 12 fires in the last three years. A few months ago, one of those fires also burned down the garage of a neighbouring house where a family lives, he said. “There’s always a chance your house can go, right? What’s it gonna take, like maybe somebody’s life, before we actually act on this stuff?” The growing issue has led the city to ramp up enforcement tools. It has hiked the tax on vacant properties, added more inspections and imposed stricter rules on boarding up homes. Winnipeg has also begun seizing 48 properties without compensation from negligent landlords and has changed the rules to make the process faster. Most recently, the city has begun taking applications for $35,000 grants to help renovate vacant buildings and turn them back into houses. “We’re trying to … match the sticks with the carrots, or provide some incentives alongside enforcement,” said Emma Fineblit, the city’s co-ordinator for neighbourhood revitalization. She said that while the city has been focusing on building new affordable housing, refurbishing old ones can add units at a lower cost. Reducing the number of vacant lots can also create broader social and safety benefits. Warren is still holding out hope that the neighbourhood can be renewed. As someone who has spent all of his 65 years there, he remembers when people sat on their doorsteps, visited and watched out for one another. “I remember how beautiful the neighbourhood was, and how viable the neighbourhood was and everything else,” he said. “I believe we can get back there.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 26, 2026. Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press
