News of the upcoming closure of an Indigenous-led overnight shelter in Winnipeg came as a surprise to some.

N’Dinawemak — Our Relatives’ Place, at 190 Disraeli Fwy., is expected to close April 1. The facility opened in 2021 to offer a culturally appropriate place for people who need a place to sleep or to warm up.

The space will be renovated and transitioned into a navigation centre for those trying to get off the street, Premier Wab Kinew said Thursday.

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Kyra Wilson said the province “wasn’t forthcoming” about the shelter’s closure to First Nations leadership and the community at large.

“Unfortunately, the province is not sharing information with everybody, and to me, that’s disrespectful to those that are utilizing the service right now,” she told CBC News on Friday.

“I’m just shocked, actually, that they decided to do this without actually getting that feedback.”

She said she wants to know more about the province’s plan forward.

“How is the province going to, overnight, have 193 vacancies for the people that are utilizing N’Dinawemak?”

Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith says nobody who uses N’Dinawemak will be left behind and that its staff will work with people as they move to transitional housing.

“All 193 folks are going into housing, with the supports of N’Dinawemak,” she said. “We’re celebrating this.”

The province will also continue to work with its First Nations partners, Smith said.

“Their goal is our goal, which is to make sure that people are housed and that they get the supports and services that they need.”

Main Street Project, the lead on helping implement the provincial homelessness strategy, declined to comment on the N’Dinawemak closure to CBC News.

Non-profit ‘will still be in the community’

Brandy Bobier, CEO of Community Helpers Unite, says the non-profit was contracted to send hundreds of meals — the most popular consisting of stew, bannock, salad and a berry crisp — to the shelter every day for more than four years.

Community Helpers Unite worked hard to give people nutritious food that also connected them to their culture, and Bobier says she’s disappointed the shelter will shut down and return with a different look.

“It would have been nice for us to have been included in that conversation,” she told CBC News on Friday.

Bobier says she learned the navigation centre won’t employ food services when it opens, and if it does, it will be through the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, which is “hospital food.”

“Everybody wants to talk about housing first, addictions first, mental health first, but you can’t work on any of those things if you’re hungry and if your last meal was slop in a cup,” Bobier said.

“When we started [with] N’Dinawemak, we were setting a precedent with the food being funded.”

Bobier says not having an opportunity to at least bid on a possible food services contract for the navigation centre in the future is not supportive of community businesses and non-profits.

The most important aspect of N’Dinawemak was the fact it was Indigenous-led, she said.

“The name that came during that naming ceremony translates in English to ‘our relatives’ place,” she said. “It’s their place, and we’re there to serve them, and I don’t feel like we’re serving them this way.”

Bobier says the changes are forcing Community Helpers Unite to offer more mobile support, but it is determined to feed people, no matter where they are.

“I can’t say that I’m going to miss [N’Dinawemak] because we will still be in the community,” she said.

“One of the things that it allows us to do is go back to our basics, which is feeding relatives at the street level.”