The city of Winnipeg and The Winnipeg Foundation announced a combined $50,000 in funding today for a temporary extreme cold weather strategy.

West Central Women’s Resource Centre, Spence Neighbourhood Association and Rainbow Resource Centre will lead the strategy.

The funding will provide these organizations – and others like them – with support for homeless members of their communities who don’t feel safe in the male-dominated environment in some of the larger shelters. It will also help homeless youth, as shelters in the city don’t accept anyone under the age of 18.

“We’ve been in constant discussions with End Homelessness Winnipeg and will continue to work with them on this plan,” West Central Women’s Resource Centre Executive Director Lorie English says. “But we realize this is a short term solution to get us out of this winter.”

English says the community was shaken into action after the death of Windy Sinclair, who froze to death during a cold snap in the city on Dec. 28, 2017.

“Even though she wasn’t homeless herself, we realized had she been seeking supports and resources at that time there wouldn’t have been any available in the neighbourhood,” English says. “We need to move this strategy along more quickly and we need action to get us out of this winter while we continue to plan for a longer term outcome.”

Mayor Brian Bowman says the city has been in ongoing discussions with poverty advocates and community organizations since council unanimously supported the End Homelessness Winnipeg initiative, which provides $150,000 per year to combat homelessness.

He says recent discussions highlighted a number of issues in the community that need to be addressed, and this temporary strategy will give the city and organizations time to come up with a long term plan.

“What we’re hearing now is there are remaining gaps in the system and there is a need for ongoing work,” Bowman says. “The discussion doesn’t end with today’s announcement, but I expect it to be part of that overall strategy.”

Rainbow Resource Centre and West Central Women’s Centre are working together to open a second site that will serve people in their communities. Part of the funding announced today will go towards staffing at that site.

As for homeless youth, Spence Neighbourhood Association Executive Director Jamil Mahmood says they see upwards of 40-50 young people coming in and out of their space on any given night.

He’s hopeful a long term strategy will come down the pipe soon.

“I’d love to see housing for youth,” Mahmood says. “We need more housing models to get kids into permanent and supportive housing.”

English says their goal is to get $70,000 in funding for this strategy and the $50,000 announced today is a good start. She says they have reached out to the province about covering the additional $20,000 and those discussions are ongoing.