Is Elmwood Losing its Community Identity?

John van Leeuwen speaking with Daniel Blaikie - March 13, 2017 at the 

Elmwood Affordable Housing Town Hall. Photo, Metro News, Dyan Martin. 

The Elmwood community has seen a number of its important community symbols under stress. The closure of the Kelvin Community C.C. and the proposed redevelopment of it into a commercial building was defeated by the combined effort of the community and its elected officials at all three levels of government. The historic fire hall on Talbot and the community programming it offered was also in jeopardy after its main tenant Youth for Christ relocated to its new building on Main Street. Providentially Riverwood Church took over the building and redeveloped it so that it includes more accessible social spaces and programming for the diverse needs of the community.  

While the community responded in positive ways to these threats the response has been piecemeal in comparison to the fundamental transformation, both economically and socially,   taking place in the neighbourhood. The thriving housing market in Winnipeg has resulted is many young families looking to Elmwood as an area to find adequate housing they can afford since they are being priced out of other areas. At the same time ‘millennials’ are looking at Elmwood as an attractive area to purchase housing since they want to be within walking distance of downtown jobs and amenities. These forces have driven up the price of housing in the area. 

While this may seem like a good thing for many homeowners in the area the advance in price is only advantageous if they are looking to sell their homes in the near future. For many residents in the community the cost of owning a home has risen drastically as houses become more expensive. This increase in property values has meant sizeable increases in property and school taxes. At the same time the higher prices for commodities and transportation has created a significant rise in the costs of building materials for home renovations while contractor and home renovation services have increased due to high demand and shortage of skilled trades. These costs have to be borne by many residents on fixed incomes or employed in employment that has not seen increases in wages relative to the increases in cost of living. As a result many homeowners have not kept up with required repairs, which means the value of their properties have not risen as much as other properties in the area who have been able to maintain their homes.          

This is why the Member of Parliament, Daniel Blaikie's, recent hosting of a forum on affordable housing was very much welcomed. The proactive approach to these issues will help in determining the needs and future potential of housing development in the community, and provide a framework by which an action plan can be developed. A panel of community and business leaders was assembled with Mr. Blaikie moderating the discussion. A question period followed. While there was general agreement that neighbourhood renewal was vital to the survival and flourishing of a city many concerns were raised about what it would do to a working class neighbourhood like Elmwood.  A key discussion point was the impact of  ‘gentrification’ and the displacement of existing residents if Elmwood is deemed an up and coming community. A great deal of concern was raised about the impact of what it would mean to residents if they were forced to move. The disruption in social networks which allowed them to survive, such as community connections, access to health services, food banks, these would all have to be reestablished after years of forming, sometimes decades. While no definitive steps were taken, residents were encouraged to connect with Elmwood Community Resource Centre  to support affordable housing initiatives in the area.       

Next Blog Article:  How To Inoculate Against The Gentrification Virus.