Crowd echoes calls for closure of Winnipeg hotel at Main Street protest
'This isn't the way people should be living,' says one of several outreach workers who toured Manwin Hotel
A pungent odour hangs in the air of dark, dingy hallways that lead to shared washrooms with missing doors and suites locked from the outside with chains.
That's the atmosphere people encountered when they entered the Manwin Hotel on Friday afternoon, following a protest just outside where community members called for better living conditions within the Main Street building.
"This isn't the way people should be treated, this isn't the way people should be living," said Victor Mondaca with the Sabe Peace Walkers, a foot patrol focused on Indigenous-led non-violent crisis interventions.
"If this is what our city is doing, then we should be ashamed as a city collectively."
Barb Guimond organized the protest to call for the hotel to be closed. She was among four dozen people outside the hotel while some drummed and danced.
The Manwin has been the scene of stabbings, assaults and deaths several times over the years. Two people were killed in separate incidents earlier this year — two of at least four homicides in the space in the past six or so years.
The space was temporarily closed in 2021 when health inspectors found a lack of heat and water in the building.
The Manitoba government ordered numerous repairs following a multi-agency inspection of the Manwin in late August. The province said there will be a follow-up later this month.
But Guimond feels the residential hotel is beyond repair.
"It's incomprehensible how someone can live in here," she said.
A City of Winnipeg spokesperson said there were no fire code violations during that multi-agency inspection co-ordinated by the province this summer — sprinkler and alarm systems were all functioning.
"Generally speaking, should conditions in a building deteriorate to the point where occupants' safety is at risk, the city may issue a vacate order to protect residents and prevent the loss of lives and property," the spokesperson said via email on Friday. "There were no fire code violations which would have justified a vacate order of the building."
What inspectors did find were issues with the condition of windows, doors and screens, as well as litter and garbage and plumbing, electrical and flooring problems that weren't up to property standards, the city said.
Inspectors are still in touch with Manwin ownership regarding some of the things they are expected to fix, some of which have different deadlines, the city said.
Vincent Lillie, an outreach worker with the Downtown Community Safety Partnership, says poverty, addiction and violence are part of everyday life at the hotel.
"I've been in these places before, doing drugs in the past when I was in my dark, dark place," said Lillie. "I know exactly the things that go on in these places and it's very horrible the things that go on."
The West Central Women's Resource Centre works with people who are homeless, including one tenant who lives at the Manwin, said Kat Roberts.
"Unfortunately, the Manwin is an example of kind of our current state of housing in Winnipeg, especially for low-income earners, people on EIA especially," said Roberts, a housing case manager with the centre.
They said the tenant in question pays $650 a month in rent at the Manwin based on employment and income assistance.
Roberts said there should be higher livability standards at the Manwin, given EIA supports come from the province to help house people at the hotel.
The province does not mandate where EIA recipients live, according to a provincial spokesperson. The province continues to work with the owner of the Manwin on ordered repairs.
The Manwin's part-owner, Akim Kambamba, said "people can protest" but he has no plans to shut down the hotel.
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With files from Josh Crabb