{"id":149242,"date":"2026-07-30T04:55:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T04:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/149242\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T04:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T04:55:18","slug":"construction-set-to-start-on-winnipeg-veterans-village-after-4-years-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/149242\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction set to start on Winnipeg veterans village after 4 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Construction is set to begin on a transitional housing project for veterans announced by the Homes for Heroes Foundation over four years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We are so happy to be ‘shovels in the ground.’ I mean, today’s the ceremony, but we’re literally waiting for the permits to arrive in the next couple of days, and then we’ll have equipment on site,” Brad Field, the foundation’s president and CEO, said at a sod-turning ceremony Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“To bring your veterans in, men and women that have served this country so well, and give them a place of dignity, a roof over their head and a program to support them to reintegrate them back into civilian life \u2014 we’re just super-excited to be here,” he said.<\/p>\n

Plans for the Winnipeg Kinsmen Veterans Village were first announced in May 2022. The original plan was for 20 tiny homes for veterans, but it will now feature 25, next to the Transcona Library.<\/p>\n

In addition to an initial $1-million donation from the Kinsmen Club of Winnipeg, the project also received a commitment of roughly $1 million from the federal government, along with $800,000 in funding commitments from the Manitoba government.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The City of Winnipeg sold the land to the Calgary-based foundation for $83,500, well below the original $400,000 purchase price.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Field says the project was delayed due to fundraising challenges, an environmental issue and “bureaucracy” at various levels of government.<\/p>\n

\"At<\/p>\n

Homes for Heroes Foundation CEO Brad Field says construction work is nearly ready to begin on the village, first announced in 2022. (Ron Dhaliwal\/CBC)<\/p>\n

He says the foundation is only waiting on the last few permits to come through before construction officially gets underway. The targeted grand opening has been pushed to next spring.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, I think we’re on track. Again, I talked to the City of Winnipeg just this morning to verify we’re on track with our permits. So, they’re coming in the coming days, not weeks. So, that’s exciting,” Field said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham, who was also at Wednesday’s ceremony, says he’s been working on this project with a wide variety of partners for five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s so exciting to finally see us be able to turn the sod and get this construction underway,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Veterans<\/p>\n

Veterans RG Hemlow, from left, Randall Trenholm and John Ritchie say they’re excited to see the veteran’s village project come to fruition, as many veterans struggle to integrate into civilian life. (Ron Dhaliwal\/CBC)<\/p>\n

“I don’t have the numbers, but if one veteran needs housing, then we, as a community, need to step up, and this Homes for Heroes project will do that.”<\/p>\n

Veterans RG Hemlow, Randall Trenholm and John Ritchie attended the ceremony in support of the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hemlow says it’s “amazing” to see a project like this, meant to give back to veterans for their service, come together with support from governments, donors and the foundation.<\/p>\n

“It just makes you feel like you really are seen because at times we feel like we’ve been pushed aside, especially when you retire after a while,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trenholm says veterans often find it very difficult to transition to normal life after they’ve served and that the housing will help those in need with the transition.<\/p>\n

“Stepping out of the military, trying to transition into civilian life, it is difficult to find gainful employment,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“You have your, you know, your experiences, your training, and it doesn’t seem to transition over into the civilian world as much. So, that is a frustration, and that’s where a lot of veterans get stuck, is in that transition.”<\/p>\n

Ritchie says these types of villages, with veterans living close by each other, are important for the camaraderie veterans need when they transition to civilian life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s something that the members, when they get out of the RCMP, when they get out of the military, they need that companionship to translate into better feelings about themselves and the way their situation is for them at that time,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Field says they are about two months away from connecting with government, local partners and shelters to come up with a list of qualified veterans to move into the village.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The hybrid homes will largely be constructed elsewhere, trucked in and then assembled at the site, to help reduce construction time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The best part of this is they’re giving the veterans a hand up. It’s not a handout, it’s a hand up. They’re going to get them going, and I’ve seen first hand through Calgary, it’s amazing,” Hemlow said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Construction is set to begin on a transitional housing project for veterans announced by the Homes for Heroes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[17504,48253,48254,17507,48255,48256,2381,84],"class_list":["post-149242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-brad-field","tag-heroes-foundation","tag-homes-for-heroes","tag-homes-for-heroes-foundation","tag-john-ritchie","tag-randall-trenholm","tag-transitional-housing","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}