Emergency shelter closing to become navigation centre for Winnipeg’s homeless population: premier

A Winnipeg homeless shelter is closing its doors at the end of the month. CTV’s Daniel Halmarson explains what is coming next.

The Manitoba government has confirmed an Indigenous-led homeless shelter that opened nearly five years ago is shutting down.

Premier Wab Kinew confirmed Thursday that N’Dinawemak (Our Relatives’ Place) on Disraeli Freeway will be closing on April 1 and will transition into a “navigation centre” to help the city’s homeless population.

“The goal is to end chronic homelessness; it’s to get people out of tents and into homes, to get people off of street corners and into treatment, and to get people who are disrupting emergency room waiting rooms out of those waiting rooms and into a more appropriate care setting,” Kinew said during an unrelated news conference.

“So this is the natural evolution of that longer-term plan, but certainly we’re going to continue providing shelter and housing and health care services for people who are vulnerable on our streets.”

The shelter opened in 2021 as a 24/7 emergency warming shelter. According to its website, N’Dinawemak helps more than 200 people per night and offers services beyond housing.

The premier said the planned navigation centre would help connect people to services, such as housing, identification and medical services.

“I recognize the folks who are at this shelter today, or folks who are working next to those vulnerable Manitobans; they have a lot of passion for what they do, but folks need to understand that this is part of a comprehensive plan to make Manitoba healthier and to tackle the issues around safety and homelessness that we’ve been seeing too much of over the past decade,” Kinew said.

Housing, Addictions, and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith told reporters the people who rely on N’Dinawemak for shelter are being taken care of.

“We’ve been working with N’Dinawemak and all 193 people will be housed,” Smith said.” We know there’s other folks that have come that need shelter and we’ll continue to work with our other shelter providers while we get the nav centre up and running.”

Smith noted her department is working with Main Street Project, Siloam Mission and The Salvation Army to boost the number of available beds across the sector during the renovation.

Smith couldn’t provide a timeline on when the navigation centre will be fully operational, but suggested it will open before next winter.

With files from CTV’s Daniel Halmarson