‘Life-saving’ pilot project in St. Boniface to be extended: health minister

Manitoba’s health minister has confirmed the government will keep a project that helps free up beds in hospital while providing safe space. CTV’s Danton Unger r

There is new life for a life-saving pilot project in St. Boniface aimed at freeing up hospital beds while providing care for the homeless.

Peter Unrau was homeless when he went into hospital with an ankle injury late last year.

“Then when I got better, basically, they needed a bed space, so I had nowhere else to go,” he said.

If it weren’t for a special pilot project at St. Boniface Street Links, he said he would have been homeless again.

“Yeah, without this place, I don’t even want to think about it.”

The pilot launched last April at 604 St. Mary’s Road with $900,000 from the province. It provides 20 transitional beds for hospital patients experiencing homelessness.

“They’re people that had been ready for discharge, some of them for a very long time, but there really was no place to discharge them to,” said Marion Willis, executive director of St. Boniface Street Links.

Willis said this frees up beds in hospitals, while still providing needed care – like home care visits, health check-ups, or financial services. All the while, Willis said her team is working to find them housing.

Since the program launched, 159 people have stayed here - some for just a few weeks, others for months at a time.

Willis said the idea for the pilot project was brought to her from the Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara’s office.

“It was a brilliant idea, I think that Minister Asagwara had,” Willis said. “I think the minister really does understand that many of the challenges that our Winnipeg hospitals are facing are linked to homelessness and addictions and mental health.”

The project was set to end March 31, but Asagwara confirmed the province will keep it going.

“Oh, definitely,” they told CTV News. “We’re extending the program.”

They said funding will likely be about the same, though it could see a slight increase.

“We’re totally okay with that,” Asagwara said. “We know that this is a strong and smart investment. We want to make sure that Manitobans, no matter where they are and what their needs are, can get the health care that they need and deserve.”

That was welcome news for Willis, who hadn’t heard yet from the province and was unsure about the program’s future.

“This has been, I think, life-saving for people,” she said.

For Unrau, who is in the process of finding housing, he said the program is desperately needed, saying his situation is far from unique.

“The hospitals won’t keep me because I’m not bad enough, but I’m too sick to be able to work, so I’m in between. There’s a lot of people like that, you know, we’re just stuck in the crack.”