Winnipeg police are probing whether this vacant home at 2158 Gallagher Avenue is linked to a homicide Wednesday. The victim has been linked to the anti-gang organization renovating the home. (CBC)A man stabbed to death in Winnipeg on Wednesday worked for a government-funded anti-gang group recently cited as a key part of a new provincial strategy against crime.

CBC News has learned the 34-year-old man, who has not been publicly identified, was an employee of Ogijita Pimatiswin Kinamatwin, a program that trains ex-street gang members to get jobs in the home renovations sector.

OPK program director Larry Morrissette confirmed the victim worked for the program, which is funded by the federal and provincial governments as well as charitable concerns like the United Way.

The developments come as Winnipeg police were seen Thursday shifting their homicide investigation from an outdoor area on Logan Avenue and Quelch Street — what was thought to be the crime scene Wednesday — to a home about a block away on Gallagher Street.

The police identification unit is also examining a knife that a CBC cameraman and reporter found next to a sidewalk on nearby Vine Street. It was in the grass, partly obscured and coated with what appeared to be blood.

After the discovery, police also taped off that area as part of the crime scene.

They said little about the killing Thursday, other than to declare the man's death a homicide, Winnipeg's 22nd of 2009.

Documents show the home at 2158 Gallagher Street, now taped off by police, is owned by the Dakota Ojibway First Nations Housing Authority.

The agency said Thursday the home is empty and being renovated by OPK, which was just named as a key piece of the Manitoba government's strategy to quell gang violence in the city. It's listed as one of four anti-gang resoures available to adults as part of Project Restore.

Agency homes in news lately

It's the second time in about a week a home owned by the aboriginal housing authority has made the news.

This home in the 800 block of Redwood was twice linked in September to police activity. (CBC)On Sept. 24, several police cruisers, including the tactical support team, and about a dozen uniformed officers investigating a shooting report were in the 800 block of Redwood Avenue between Arlington Street and Sinclair Street from about 3:30 a.m. until 8 a.m.

Traffic was rerouted away from the area as police could be heard calling into the Redwood Avenue house into which six suspects had retreated.

Police were at the scene for hours, telling people inside the residence to come out and blasting a siren.

Several neighbours said the house is known to have a connection to street gangs and there were teenagers hanging around the residence for several hours before that incident.

The suspects had just been involved in a confrontation with an area homeowner who said a member of the group had fired two shots from a handgun at him.

A few days before that, a 17-year-old boy who had been shot turned up at the same Redwood Avenue home looking for help. Police were called and the boy was taken to hospital for treatment.