Manitoba’s largest school division has added workshops with identification and housing-related support services and on-site tax clinics to its wide-ranging roster of free programs.
“I’m ready; I need to be on my own and I need to gain my independence,” said Kyla Fontaine, 22, after stopping by Technical Vocational High School for its inaugural housing-themed service expo.
“I love my auntie, but living together is too much, sometimes. We fight too much. We get on each other’s nerves.”
RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS
A poster for a recent resource fair at Tec-Voc featuring Rent Assist, Service Canada and Sara Riel Mental Health and Addictions caught Kyla Fontaine’s attention.
Fontaine has spent much of her young life without a consistent roof over her head as she moved between relatives, foster care, an ex-boyfriend’s apartment and, at times, outside.
That’s why the mature student said a poster for a recent resource fair at Tec-Voc, featuring Rent Assist, Service Canada and Sara Riel Mental Health and Addictions, among other booths, caught her attention.
The Dec. 10 event — the first of its kind in 2024-25, and the fourth since the Winnipeg School Division began partnering with End Homelessness Winnipeg last year to host housing expos — drew just under 100 people during the afternoon and evening.
“Our students have addresses on (our internal database), but that doesn’t mean they’re actually living there. They could be couch-surfing or homeless,” said Kasia Guzzi, a community support program co-ordinator for the division that has 82 schools in central Winnipeg.
Youth aged 24 and under account for 22 per cent of the city’s homeless population, per the latest street census data compiled and analyzed by End Homelessness Winnipeg.
The 2022 point-in-time project found more than six in 10 youth had spent time in the care of Child and Family Services.
More than half of participants of all ages — the overwhelming majority of whom were Indigenous — had not completed high school.
Guzzi said local principals have raised concerns about growing housing insecurity among families during the cost-of-living crisis and related effects on attendance.
Rotating resource fairs give people an opportunity to visit local schools and build community, in addition to seeking useful services in one convenient place, she said.
Current students, caregivers and other members of the public were invited to Tec-Voc to eat free snacks while browsing a dozen stands run by local service providers outside of their typical hours.
Visitors got taxes done at no charge, learned about tenant rights, opened bank accounts, retrieved forgotten social insurance numbers and both applied for and renewed status cards via the Southern Chiefs’ Organization.
Young adults who are searching for their first apartments, along with other community members who have found themselves in precarious housing situations, often do not know about all the services that they are entitled to, said Janine Bramadat, manager of prevention at End Homelessness Winnipeg.
“It’s a lot of debunking myths about how scary some of these processes might seem from a distance, and being able to provide a bit more of a human-level (service),” Bramadat said about the workshop series.
The event was staffed by representatives from New Journey Housing, Employment and Income Assistance, the Residential Tenancies Branch, the Manitoba Rent Relief Fund, and the Canada Revenue Agency.
Assiniboine Credit Union was invited so participants could open a free bank account and sign up for GST direct deposits on the spot.
City of Winnipeg employees also promoted libraries and the recreation fee assistance program, which allots low-income residents $300 in credits for swimming and skating lessons, and no-cost admission to pools and fitness centres.
“People get things done. It’s not just a brochure,” Guzzi said.
The community support program co-ordinator recalled witnessing a pregnant student file her taxes so she is eligible for the Canada child benefit, learn how to access income on maternity leave, apply for a new status card and find out she qualifies for Rent Assist in one sitting.
Also on Dec. 10, Fontaine created a Canada Revenue Agency account and collected information to begin house-hunting.
“It was really guiding. The people there were really nice and they were really understanding,” the 22-year-old said. “I wish my cousin could’ve gone, too.”
Fontaine, who dropped out of public school in Grade 9 as she grappled with a drug addiction, recently resumed studies at the Winnipeg Adult Education Centre.
The mature student’s current goals are to graduate and secure her own apartment by the end of 2025.
End Homelessness Winnipeg and WSD are planning the first housing resource fair of the new year at R.B. Russell Vocational School, located at 364 Dufferin Ave., on Feb. 13.
Elmwood High School and Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute have hosted public events in the past.
Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter
Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she joined the newsroom as a reporter in 2019. Read more about Maggie.
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