Low-income resource centre opens in new location

A resource for homeless and low-income Winnipeggers has a new home in St. Boniface.

The Centre Flavie-Laurent moved to its new facility on Provencher Boulevard Friday from its Marion Street site in Winnipeg 

The organization has been providing free furniture and clothing to between 350 and 500 people a week for 30 years.

The new centre has a massive warehouse space to hold furniture and clothing donations. It also has an office space, kitchen, bathroom facilities and a laundry room.

The centre is an oasis for people like Lauren and Dominic Quiambao, who arrived in Canada from the Philippines about three months ago.

"Both of us, we don't have any job so it means we don't have the money to buy expensive furniture," Dominic Quiambao told CBC News.

The immigrants had no one to turn to until a neighbour told them about the Flavie-Laurent Centre.

"Because of this centre you are able to have a kitchen table and chairs so that's a big relief," Lauren Quiambao said.

Last year the centre closed its doors for months while it looked for a bigger space to accommodate its growing needs.Thanks to funding from all levels of government, it has moved into a site that's four times bigger than the old one.

Federal grant

The total cost of the project is more than $430,000. The majority of the funds came from the federal government. Service Canada's Homelessness Partnering Strategy gives municipalities money to distribute to various organizations.

"We partnered on the Homelessness Partnership Strategy," said Shelly Glover, MP for St. Boniface. "We put $243,000 to what we see here today."

Other funding is being provided by the Winnipeg Foundation ($15,000), Centre Flavie-Laurent ($25,000), in-kind contributions ($52,500), with the remaining funds provided through organizations under the umbrella of the Catholic Health Corporation of Manitoba.

Denise Dupuis, who has been a volunteer at the centre for the past five years, says she does it because it feels good to put a smile on someone's face.

"People come in here, you never know," she said. "Sometimes nobody even said good morning to those people that day."

It's a welcome the Quiambaos are grateful for, allowing them to focus on restarting their lives in Canada.

"It's very helpful for us," Dominic Quiambao said.