Psychiatrists and poverty reduction workers are teaming up to reduce homelessness in Winkler and Steinbach.
The Bridge on Third, a 30-suite apartment building, is proposed by Steinbach Community Outreach and Eden Health Care Services. It would house people who were unhoused or on the verge of losing their home because of mental health issues.
Steinbach Community Outreach manager Charlene Kroeker said she became more determined to find a mental health care solution to go with the affordable housing being built in Steinbach after a client spent three days trying to get help before losing her home.
“By the third day, she went home. She got angry at her landlord, ended up getting evicted. And part of this was, had she gotten access to mental health on the first day, when we had brought her in and gotten her meds adjusted, that would not have happened. And she would not have ended up homeless,” Kroeker said.
Steinbach Community Outreach provides poverty reduction support and would run the building. Eden Health would handle the mental health component, including psychiatric care and social workers available to help 24 hours a day.
“We know that their baseline may be receiving on-site supports and services for the rest of their lives. Others will transition to a point where they can live independently without supports, or very minimal support,” Eden Health housing and supports director Leighton Knapp said.
He said that with support directly from Eden Health, it frees up space for people who need to use the hospital.
It is a model Eden Health has used in Winnipeg’s Concordia Village Forum and at Winkler’s Central Commons. The latter site opened in September and houses 28 client tenants.
Winkler’s project includes Eden Health and landlord Central Community Homes, which took over public housing from Manitoba Housing in the city 155 kilometres south of Winnipeg. It now looks after 138 housing units in Winkler.
“It doesn’t matter if you have addictions, mental health issues, just whatever range of challenges in your life — if you have a safe place to live that you can afford, you can get the other pieces together,” Central Community Homes board chair James Friesen said.
(Christopher Gareau/CBC)
Winkler’s affordable housing and mental health program also includes Central Station Community Centre, which helps people keep those pieces together. Tenants learn to budget, cook, clean and deal with conflict, among other things.
“We want to ensure that not only are people getting housed, but they’re staying housed. We want to ensure that eviction is prevented,” Central Station executive director Anita Wiebe said.
Matthew Toews, a psychiatrist and medical director of Eden Health, said having a place to stay reduces readmissions to mental health facilities.
“The easy part is bringing people into hospital and treating them. The hard part is trying to discharge them. So, we’re often stuck with patients that are actually doing quite well in hospital that have now been treated, but we have nowhere to discharge them to because there’s just not a lot of housing available,” Toews said.
Brandon Black, 31, has lived at Linden Place, another Eden East residence in Winkler, since September 2023.
He asked for a place to stay when he realized he needed serious help for his anxiety.
Now, Black paints, plays guitar and bass, and socializes with others going through something similar over a cup of tea or coffee.
(Christopher Gareau/CBC)
“For me, I kind of get out of my shell and talk more,” he said.
Black is eyeing the Central Commons affordable housing apartment building as an opportunity.
“I want to get my own place after this,” he said.
It is a step towards independence that Eden Health hopes to spread in more communities through its work with Southern Health, starting with Steinbach.
Central Community Homes board chair James Friesen and Central Station Community Centre executive director Anita Wiebe in Winkler’s Central Commons shared space. (Christopher Gareau/CBC)
Kroeker said 1,000 people come through Steinbach Community Outreach’s doors every year. She said people struggling in rural communities have limited places they can get help.
“We are the only agency in southeastern Manitoba that helps people who are homeless right now that is operating. So, we do get people coming from more rural communities, smaller towns that are out there, kind of wanting to access our services,” Kroeker said.
She said the people who would be living in the Bridge on Third need specialized mental health services in a stable environment like Central Commons in Winkler.
“Public perception is that, ‘Well, the churches will take care of you because… we’re in the Bible Belt here.’ And that’s a misconception, because they are not mental health experts,” Kroeker said.
(Christopher Gareau/CBC)
“They are not addictions experts or substance use experts either. They rely on the charities.”
Eden Health and Steinbach Community Outreach have applied for provincial funding and approval to move ahead on construction as early as next year.