The provincial government’s announcement that several homeless shelters in Manitoba would receive funding to offer 24-7 service through the winter is a good step towards providing better supports for vulnerable people, says Thompson Mayor Colleen Smook.
Smook and city manager Anthony McInnis were in Winnipeg July 18 for the announcement of $25 million in homelessness initiatives by provincial Families Minister Rochelle Squires.
$2.6 million of that money is going to homeless shelters in Winnipeg, Brandon, Swan Valley, The Pas and Thompson to enable them to keep their doors open during the day from October 1 to March 31. The Thompson Healing Centre, which has transitioned from being run by the Canadian Mental Health Association to being operated by Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, is receiving $350,000 of that funding.
“Providing 24-hour service will reduce barriers to accessing shelter service, foster a more person-centred approach and allow people to utilize their services as needed,” Squires said.
Current provincial funding is only for 12 hours of overnight operation. The province hopes that providing homeless people in these areas with a place to go throughout the day during the coldest months of the year will not only improve their quality of life but help them to eventually find permanent housing.
Smook says enabling the healing centre, housed in a city-owned building on the corner of Station Road and Princeton Drive, to operate through the morning and afternoon fills a gap in services for homeless Thompsonites.
“With our long, cold winters and a lack of indoor spaces where they can keep warm, homeless people in Thompson may spend 12 hours outside without access to things like public bathrooms,” said Smook. “Enabling the Thompson Healing Centre to keep its doors open all day will make vulnerable people safer and give them a chance to access services that can help them get off the streets and into a place of their own.”
The shelter will eventually house a sobering centre as well, giving intoxicated people who may be at risk of harm a safe, supervised alternative to being lodged in RCMP cells.
The government also announced programs to make more existing housing units in Manitoba available to people who are homeless and to acquire, renovate or build 212 more social housing units. These include eligibility for rent supplements and interest-free loans to help pay for pre-development costs of affordable housing projects.
The province is also creating a community advisory committee to support the implementation and evaluation of Manitoba’s homelessness strategy.
