An official with Manitoba Housing says the reception centre for asylum seekers in Gretna did exactly what it was intended to do. In May, a former seniors' residence on Berlin Avenue was transformed into a temporary housing centre to help deal with the rush of people crossing the Canada/U.S. border into Manitoba.
    

Carolyn Ryan was part of a group of Manitoba Housing officials that met with local residents in April to outline a plan to house asylum seekers in Gretna"It made the situation much more manageable and much more controllable," said Carolyn Ryan, Executive Director for Manitoba Housing and Community Development. She explained this sort-of pit stop in Gretna allowed the people to get some rest, acclimatized to their new environment and get started on the paperwork required to file refugee claims.

Ryan added it also took the pressure off the response systems in Winnipeg such as settlement agencies and homeless shelters.

"It made the flow of asylum seekers into Winnipeg much more manageable and much more predictable."

She noted that at one point the reception centre saw new people arriving every day in varying numbers, however, the volume dropped drastically in June but rebounded a bit in July. Ryan added that Manitoba Housing is actively reviewing if the facility is still needed and for how much longer, as well as what some other options might be.

"We would probably return to a system like we had before we opened Gretna where asylum seekers came directly into Winnipeg. That certainly had its downfalls though and led to some of the problems we were having when numbers were high, so making a decision to say these numbers are going to stay low, we're not prepared to do that yet."

Meantime, Ryan thanked the residents of Gretna and the surrounding area for their support during this time. "It's been much more than I ever could have imagined."