Rachel Okemow says getting off the street and into a privately owned apartment about eight years ago is what enabled her to quit drinking, get a job and start a family.
“I was relieved.… I felt safe to come home,” Okemow, 42, said earlier this month at Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre’s drop-in centre on Winnipeg’s Selkirk Avenue.
“That’s where I just decided to stop drinking and just stay home. I actually had a place.”
Okemow, who grew up in northern Manitoba in and around Thompson, got help from an Indigenous-led family resource centre that’s deeply involved in solving homelessness.
It’s seeing a growing need for housing, but its approach is to help people when they’re ready, rather than rushing them into their own place.
The Wi Che Win housing-first program, operated by the non-profit Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre, helped Okemow and many other people in the same situation.