Clan Mothers want to buy vacant Point Douglas lot for $1, build transitional housing for women

A group led by Indigenous women hopes to build a healing village on a plot of vacant land in Point Douglas — but first they need the City of Winnipeg to sell it to them.

The city is considering a proposal — brought to its property and development committee Thursday — to sell a Maple Street property to the Clan Mothers Healing Village for $1. The group wants to build a transitional housing and social enterprise facility for women and two-spirit people at risk of violence and sexual exploitation.

"What we see is wood and large windows, and that relationship from the indoor to the outdoor," said co-founder Jamie Goulet. 

"Here we would have access to being together around a fire and all the things that communities do. This is a community down here and we need more of that down here."

The property at 48 Maple St. currently belongs to the city and is legally part of an adjacent fire hall leased to the Winnipeg Firefighters Museum.

A representative of the museum told the committee on Thursday it supports the proposal.

Clan Mothers help women who are at risk of violence and exploitation. They own a house at 38 Maple St., which serves as their main headquarters.

The group also runs land-based healing programs on a property in Belair, Man. — 91 kilometres north of Winnipeg — and they hope this transitional housing project can enable them to act faster when women need help.

"We have a window of opportunity … and we have to act when we can so when a woman is ready to go into treatment we need to take her right then and there," said Kim Trossel, 

Having the transitional housing space on Maple Street would allow them to intervene earlier, before a person might be ready to move out to their centre in Belair.

For the last decade, the Clan Mothers have been helping to take care of the property next to their house on Maple Street.

They also perform ceremonies and hold sweat lodges, but they hope a housing project will help better connect those they help to these spiritual services.

"We need it desperately, because we really feel that some of our women that we're working with now, for instance, are still having some problems and sometimes they find themselves homeless," said Mae Louise Campbell, a co-founder of Clan Mothers.

In addition to housing, the facility would have space for social enterprises that would provide training and income opportunities for the people living there.

The project has the support of the area councillor, Vivian Santos, who said she was motivated to find a project supporting vulnerable women following recent homicides in her ward.

"It's my hope that when this does get off the ground … that this will be a transformational change for women and the community that I ultimately serve," said Point Douglas Coun. Vivian Santos.

City officials have 90 days to report back to the committee on whether the sale would be feasible.