New supportive housing complex officially opens for vulnerable Winnipeggers

Anew housing project for thoseliving with mental health and addictionsand at risk of becoming homeless officially opened Mondayin the heart ofWinnipeg's Centennial neighbourhood.

Thethree-storey, 47-unit building at the corner of Ross Avenue andEllen Streetreplaced a boarded-up warehouse thathad been vacant for 24years.

The Ross Ellen Housing Complex, as the new building is known, includes a commercial kitchen and common dining area on the ground floor, as well as a living room, game room, TV area and a round room for Indigenous cultural activities.

The landscaped and fenced yardfeatures an outdoor patio and community garden area for tenants.

The building is administeredunder a housing first model,a recovery-oriented approach centred on the beliefthat addiction, domestic problems andmental health issues are best addressed once a person has a home.

The pendulum is beginning to swing the other way butmany agencies in the city still requirepeople to be sober in order to have a place to sleep, said John Pollard, co-CEO of Pollard Banknote, whose family contributed $4.6 million to the new complex and will operate it through its non-profit charity, Home First Winnipeg.

"When you get to know people and deal with them, you realize that's just not going to work," he said about the abstinence rule. "You need to take people in the way they are and then hope they can [get] better from that better place."

Support staff will be onsite and available 24/7 for every resident seeking help. As well, 15 units are designed aroundaccessibility for those with disabilities.

"Like every major city in North America, Winnipeg right now faces the challenge of too many people struggling unsheltered or homeless," said Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham at a Monday news conference unveiling the new complex.

"The only way we're going to make meaningful progress in tacking that challenge is in by working together all levels of government, social service agencies and the private sector."

All three levels of government and End Homelessness Winnipeg also contributed funding to open the $9-million facility.The province has also committed to provide annual operating funding.

"This could be a place where an individual's spirit grows brighter, shines brighter, and they're able to take on the challenges that life has," saidJasonWhitford, president and CEO of End Homelessness Winnipeg.

The idea for the Ross Ellen complexwas prompted when the Pollards bought the 142-year-old Winnipeg Hotel on Main Street with an eye to restoring it. About 50 vulnerable people needed to find elsewhere to live, and John Pollard soon discovered the difficulty inthat.

"It's hard not to be a citizen and Winnipeg and know about the problem with homelessness but we got a much closer look at it," Pollard said."We got a first-hand look at trying to help those people find another place to live."

He was given an eye-opening view to the "deplorable condition" some people must endurebecause they haveno other option.

The Winnipeg Hotel was rife with bedbugs, collapsing in some places, and barely functioning. There wasone washroom per floor and none seemed to work, Pollard said.

"Criminals had moved in, taken over some of the rooms, dealing drugs and running prostitution out of it," he said. "We felt badly about closing down the Winnipeg Hotel, even though those were decrepit spaces that no one should live in."

With the help of multiple housing services and his own family, Pollard managed to find alternate residences for people who were living in the hotel "but it took a while and was really hard."

"So if you're a vulnerable person who doesn't have all those resources behind you, what chance do you have at finding a place?" Pollard said. "So, obviously, if we're going to address the homeless problem, we need homes."

But that needs to be wrapped with a supportive element, he added.So he became determined to increase the stock of supportive social housing in the city.

Construction began in November 2021 with a land blessing at the site. Now14 residents call the complex home with others being slowly moved in, Pollard said.

"We're thrilled to be open."