Winnipeg's Centre Village to be turned into 30-unit social housing building

A downtown Winnipeg housing complex that has been sitting vacant for years will be getting a facelift.

Centre Village at 575 Balmoral St., a 25-unit complex built in 2010, is going to be redeveloped into 30 social housing units, the province said in a news release Monday.

The provincial government is donating the site to the Winnipeg Housing Rehabilitation Corp., a non-profit founded in the late 1970s to develop affordable housing in the inner city.

The corporation will get up to $2.2 million from the province to be used toward its redevelopment, which will include a new, 30-unit social housing building.

With help from the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs' First Nations Family Advocate Office and the Spence Neighbourhood Association, the new building will offer on-site support services for youth at risk of homelessness and for expectant parents at risk of involvement with the child welfare system, the province says.

The government will spend about $577,000 each year for those wraparound supports so the units can be rented out on a rent-geared-to-income basis.

The complex was originally intended to serve as a co-operative for observant Muslim newcomers who could not obtain mortgages without violating a faith-based ban against paying interest.

However, that model was abandoned, and Manitoba Housing took ownership in 2015. It opened a request for proposals to acquire the 12,900 square-foot site last year. The complex has been vacant since 2021.