the winnipeg declaration

Mobilizing faith lands to end homelessness.

The Winnipeg Declaration is a national commitment mobilizing faith leaders, public partners, and community organizations around a clear goal: deploy faith-owned land and buildings for the public good, with ending homelessness as a core imperative.

A Critical Turning Point for Faith Land in Canada

Across Canada, nearly one-third of faith properties face risk of closure—and when they close, communities lose long-term opportunities for housing, services, and stability.

With the right support, these sites can become community hubs, affordable housing, and resilient nonprofit space, rather than being lost to speculative outcomes.

What This Movement Unlocks

The campaign converts national commitment into practical action by:

Building national sign-on and accountability across major faith traditions, with structures to track and report progress toward deploying up to 20% of existing land assets.
Accelerating pledge-to-project pipelines through readiness work like land inventories, early case studies, and feasibility scoping.
Convening the right actors to remove barriers—faith leaders, municipalities, housing/nonprofit partners, Indigenous partners, funders, planners, and developers—to unlock projects faster and more equitably.
Ensuring under-resourced communities benefit, including those led by and serving Black, Indigenous, and other marginalized communities.

A New National Impact Trajectory

This initial campaign is designed as the catalytic first step in a longer-term effort to support the deployment of religious land holdings toward ending homelessness.

By catalyzing the initiative now, the long-term potential includes:

Mobilizing 6,000 acres in land assets toward the elimination of homelessness
Catalyzing the development of more than 50,000+ units of affordable housing
Strengthening local capacity to sustainably deliver social services and supports

National Attention & Momentum

Winnipeg Free Press

Churches find new calling
Charity works to transform land into affordable housing

Future of Good

‘Winnipeg Declaration’ calls on faith leaders to transform empty church land into affordable housing

Catalytic Capital for System Change

We are raising $5 million in catalytic philanthropic investment to launch and operationalize the Winnipeg Declaration over the next three years—building the enabling infrastructure required to support deployment at scale.

These early dollars fund “build-first” capacity—leadership, legal and Indigenous relations capacity, national convening, communications infrastructure, and implementation supports that convert a national commitment into coordinated action.

The Next Phase: Building the Movement

Over the next phase, Relèven will convene partners and build the infrastructure needed to move from commitment to coordinated implementation, including national roundtables with meaningful Indigenous leadership participation.

Signing is opening soon.
We will soon invite faith communities and partners to view the Declaration and add their names as Signatories or Witnesses. For now, you can register to receive the launch announcement.

Add Your Voice to the Declaration

FAQ

Not yet. Signing as a Signatory or Witness will open soon.
Please register your interest via the form above and we will let you know as soon as signing opens.
A commitment to direct a portion of faith-owned land and buildings toward the public good, with ending homelessness as a core imperative. This may include the construction or stabilization of affordable and supportive rental housing, as well as enhancing the supports to the journey out of homelessness including works in food security, employment, language training and more.
Faith leaders, municipalities, housing and nonprofit partners, First Nations and Indigenous Communities, funders, planners, developers, and community organizations and the general public working to unlock projects faster and more equitably.