'Truly their space': Bell Hotel offers contrasting view of beverage room woes facing Winnipeg police

It's been about a decade since the Bell Hotel on Main Street underwent a dramatic transformation.

Back in 2007 when it closed, it was a derelict, century-old beverage room and hotel with shared bathrooms and a reputation for crime andviolence.

It reopened in 2011 and continues to bea warm, airy low-income housing complex with on-site mental health and addictions support staff.

The Bell now operateswithout a beverage room or liquor being sold in the building, and the new space's supports arebased on a harm reduction and housing firstapproach.

"What makes the Bell a positive place is the fact that we allow humans to be humans," Bell Hotel supervisor Kerri Smith said.

Many viewed the transformation as a step forward for an area with several such beverage rooms considered past their prime.

When it bought and closed the Bell for renovations, the board of CentreVentureDevelopment Corporation, the city's arm's-length development agency, characterized that stretch of Main Street as a "disgrace to all the citizens of Winnipeg," according to a Winnipeg Free Press story from August 2007.

Thirteen years on, discussion is swirling again over whether the era has come and gone for beverage rooms in Winnipeg's core, stemming from concerns raised by police about the Windsor Hotel following a year of gun, drug and violent incidents.

But simply closing the doors of beverage rooms isn't an option, community advocates say. They point to the Bell Hotel as an example of a way to turn things around.

Harm reduction and housing first

It isn't a requirement that tenants at the Bell stay soberor stop using as a condition of them living there, though there's wraparound care that includes trained workers on hand 24/7 for those who want help with recovery and access to other services.

"When you open dry facilities or sober living, which are great and have their place you're still telling someone there's a set of expectations that have to be followed, and maybe they're not ready for that," Smith said.

The Bell is founded on the idea that if you give people experiencing homelessness a stable and safe place to live, and the means to chart a path forward on their terms, in the long run they have a better chance of recovering and reintregrating with society.

There are common areas on the first floor where tenants watch television and lounge around.There's a room for ceremonial healing and meetings, knitting circles and art events.

Sexual assault trauma recovery groups and harm reduction programming areoffered often, and the rooms come furnished and move-in ready, each with its own bathroom.

"Part of the concept of the Bell Hotel is you also have to create pathways: pathways through social enterprises like our food bank, like education and things like that," said Rick Lees, executive director of Main Street Project.

"So it isn't just about the housing, it's about all the pieces around it."

'Problems that have existed for many years'

CentreVenture can take credit for facilitating some of theprogress at the Bell.

It invested $5.3 million in renovations after buying the Bell in 2007, and partnered with Main Street Project, which continues to manage the space and programming.

CBC Archives (1998): The Bell Hotel through the years:

CBC Archives (1998): The Bell and Main Street hotels through the years

5 years ago

Duration 7:38

In 1998, the CBC's Vera-Lynn Kubinec spoke with people with connections to the Bell Hotel from its owner and tenants to police and bar patrons about its history and future.

Less than a block down Main Street, CentreVenture was also involved in the conversion of the Occidental Hotel into Red Road Lodge, a transitional housing space.

A few years ago, the agency also bought and closed the St. Regis Hotel, another former beverage room. It's being gutted in preparation for sale and demolition.

CentreVenture CEP Angela Mathieson, who sits on Main Street Project's building committee, said police were being called to the St. Regis hotel often before it closed, not unlike the Windsor Hotel.

Beverage room concerns

ALiquor, Gaming and Cannabis Authority spokesperson said there have been no public complaints registered about the Windsor Hotel in the past three years, but it's been on the radar for Winnipeg police.

Insp. Max Waddell, head of the guns and gangs unit, has pointed to the Windsor Hotelas a trouble spot over the past year.

He suggested the LGCAshould consider stripping its licence or closing the place down due to a series of drug busts, gun seizures, assaults and other violent incidents there dating back to early 2019.

"These places are unfortunately attracting individuals who are causing disruption and they're causing a lot of crime to be occurring in the city of Winnipeg," Waddell said Wednesday, a little over a week after a fatal shooting at the Windsor.

Watch Insp. Waddell discussWindsor, beverage rooms:

Winnipeg police inspector discuss recent Windsor Hotel homicide

5 years ago

Duration 0:32

In recent months, Winnipeg police guns and gang unit head Insp. Max Waddell has suggested the LGCA close the Windsor Hotel or strip its liquor licence following a series of drug busts and gun crime.

Mathiesonthinks thatLiquor, Gaming and Cannabis Authority inspectors should be looking at beverage rooms "very carefully."

"The recent [homicide at the Windsor] is symptomatic of problems that have existed for many years," she said.

"They should be properly operated, and where the sale of liquor and alcohol is being granted, we should be assured that they are also operating the rest of their businesses properly."

Inspection crack down comes at a cost

Jino Distasio, former director of theInstitute ofUrban Studiesat the University of Winnipeg, thinks buildingslike the Windsor that rent out suites as low-income housing have a place in the city, where there are an estimated 1,500 people living on the street, in shelters or in transitional housing.

The current missing link, Distasio said, is what would happen after the LGCA were to close a place like the Windsor.

He suspects a boost in beverage room inspections in the core would find a number of "deficiencies" that could lead to closures.

"Then what? And that's the Catch 22: Do we want to throw a bunch of people out into the street? Do we want a bunch of people living in squalor?" he asked.

He says any crack down on beverage rooms will come at a cost.

"We have to again ask ourselves where do we want people living and how can we protect the greatest number of vulnerable persons that are probably finding themselves constantly in the middle of this."

'Industry of poverty'

Architect Wins Bridgman also doesn't think closing the Windsor down will solve anything.

"I feel as though it's really problematic, the idea that poor people can't go out and drink and have fun together whereas rich people can, and that's because we perceive poor people when they get together as being dangerous," said Bridgman.

"CentreVenture and the police kind of got it wrong: they've got it wrong for a long period of time."

Bridgman said Winnipeg needs more mixed-use neighbourhoods, and that the root of issues facing beverage rooms in and around the core is a dearth of affordable housing and a city planning challenge.

He praises the work of places like Siloam Mission, Salvation Army, The Bell Hotel and others for the work they do with people experiencing homelessness. He also says the fact that they are clustered within a couple blocks is a problem.

"The two blocks between Logan and Higgins have been designated pretty much as an area for the industry of poverty," he said.

Bridgman said a novel idea would be to recreate an affordable housing complex,like the Bell Hotel,outside of Winnipeg's core.

Watch: Centre Venture closes the Bell Hotel in 2007:

CBC Archives (2007): 'Tears and goodbyes' as the Bell Hotel closes

5 years ago

Duration 1:57

CBC reporter Karen Rocznik reports on the day the Bell Hotel closed in 2007.

Rules and independence

Tenants at the Bell have their independence and lead the lives they choose, Lees said, but there are also rules.

Residents may have one overnight guest, twice per week, something Lees says tenants are on board with because they see it helps keep the space safe.

The biggest challenge facing staff at the Bell is helping tenants who lived on the street develop life skills to manage their new living space, said Lees.

"That's the cool part about it is you can build that into it and and can actually make some progress."

Today, rooms generally go for $350 a month, which is cheap enough for someone on employment and income assistance to afford, said Lees.

"Compare that to close to $700 that some people in the Manwin [Hotel and beverage room] pay for a room with no shower, no toilet and a window that's got a cardboard in it because the glass is broken."

Abstinence not for everybody

The Bell Hotel's days as a beverage room are in the past and Lees says that's a good thing.

But Lees acknowledges that it's not the only option.

"Abstinence is not necessarily the model for everybody."

Still, he sees the Bell Hotel as a success for those who choose to abstain, with several residents who have been there since its reinvention.

"It is truly their space," said Lees.