An Indigenous-led overnight shelter on the edge of downtown Winnipeg is shutting down.
N’Dinawemak — Our Relatives’ Place, at 190 Disraeli Fwy., is set to close April 1. It opened just over four years ago to offer a culturally appropriate place for people who need a place to sleep or to warm up.
CBC News has learned that staff were informed Thursday morning about the closure.
Premier Wab Kinew said the space will be renovated and transitioned into a navigation centre for those trying to get off the street.
“The navigation centre is the first place they go so that we can get you your IDs, if you don’t have your IDs, get you housing so that we can get a roof over your head, talk to you about seeing a doctor so that you can get a routine checkup,” he said during an unrelated news conference on Thursday.
The navigation centre will also be able to help with things like getting a pregnancy test, he said.
“A big part of what we want to do with folks on the street is to stop mom-to-be from transmitting HIV or STBBIs [sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections] to their babies.”
The Indigenous-led N’Dinawemak, shown in a December 2021 photo, provides a 24/7 winter warming space and overnight shelter. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)
The building at 190 Disraeli is a shared space with the province’s new 72-hour sobering centre, which was given the go-ahead earlier this month to begin taking in people.
It can house people who highly intoxicated by hard drugs like meth for up to three days.
Kinew said that’s part of why N’Dinawemak is now closing, as the intent has always been to expand the 72-hour centre, which he referred to as a protective centre for care, into a larger full-service facility.
“This is the natural evolution of a long-term plan,” he said, adding none of the people currently staying at N’Dinawemak will be abandoned.
“There is a plan for every person to be moved from the existing shelter to another site,” which will allow for renovations and expanded services at 190 Disraeli, said Kinew.
“This is an important step in helping us respond … when we see people in crisis out on the streets, downtown in particular,” he said.
Kinew wouldn’t say where the people at N’Dinawemak will be going, citing privacy reasons.
“We are re-orienting the services that we have in this area but … certainly we’re going to continue providing shelter and housing and health-care services for people who are vulnerable on our streets.”
Kinew didn’t speak much about the N’Dinawemak staff who are being let go, other than to say he knows 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,” he said.