Jubilee Fund receives $130,000 donation to help provide safe housing

The exterior of a Winnipeg apartment building is pictured in an undated image. (CTV News File Photo)

An effort to help Manitoba women in need of safe, affordable housing received a boost on Monday.

The Jubilee Fund received a $130,000 donation from the Mennonite Central Committee of Manitoba (MCC), which will be used to establish a rent guarantee pilot program for at-risk women in Manitoba.

“There’s a serious gap in the housing that’s available in the non-profit community,” said Monica Sigurdson, fund development manager with Jubilee Fund.

The pilot program will see the charity act as a guarantor on rental agreements for a one-year period to allow women experiencing domestic violence to have a safe home.

Sigurdson said the program is crucial to helping women who are working to flee domestic violence, and the organization is thankful to MCC for its support.

“There is no other program like this in Manitoba,” she said. “So if we don't have generous funders like MCC Manitoba, programs like this don't start, and secondly, they don't survive, which means a lot of marginalized Manitobans are out of support. So I think it's crucial.”

Sigurdson said the program is expected to help between 10 and 50 women during its first year. More information can be found on the Jubilee Fund’s website.