Al Wiebe never thought he’d be an advocate for the homeless.
His experience helping out in the community used to include filling his Mercedes with frozen turkeys and delivering them to shelters around the holidays.
Years later, he would suffer from mental health issues, lose his six-figure income and end up living in that same car.
JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS
Al Wiebe, organizer for the second annual Human Rights Symposium on Homelessness and Poverty at the Canadian Museum For Human Rights Monday, which attracted more than 100 community advocates and politicians.
“You get discriminated against as a homeless person. There’s so many barriers to moving forward in a person’s life and so I felt that we needed to have a bigger conversation about it,” Wiebe said.
The conversation continued Monday as more than 100 community advocates and politicians gathered at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights for the second annual Human Rights Symposium on Homelessness and Poverty, which was organized by Wiebe.
After being connected with supports through his doctor, receiving psychiatric treatment and eventually finding stable housing, Wiebe began advocating for the construction of stable and affordable housing in Winnipeg.
Wiebe thinks the key to addressing homelessness in the city is working from the bottom of the economic ladder up, instead of lifting up the middle class.
“Otherwise, (the government) keep feeding middle incomes and then we get down to the bottom and there’s nothing left,” he said.
More than a dozen speakers, including those from organizations, people with lived experience and city councillors, explored possible solutions for chronic homelessness.
Coun. Vivian Santos (Point Douglas) pointed to lowering bus fares, more public washrooms, addressing period poverty and a “mindful cleanup” of homeless encampments as areas to focus on in the interim. She said long-term solutions rely on money from all levels of government to address the housing stock.
“We know social housing and rent geared to income housing is very, very important,” Santos said. “I’m hoping the federal government comes to the plate with the a plan (in the budget) that really tackles the social and economic disparity that a lot of Canadians are facing today.”
The federal government has hinted the federal budget, to be released today, will focus on housing. On April 12, Ottawa announced billions in spending to “solve the housing crisis” including building more homes, making it easier to own or rent, and help for those who can’t afford a home.
The city’s preliminary budget looked to have an “aggressive housing-first model,” but advocates on the front lines cautioned against implementing the framework, saying without an adequate supply of housing, the plan will never work.
“Housing-first doesn’t work without housing,” said Lorie English, executive director for the West Central Women’s Resource Centre, which advocates for women and gender-diverse people who face economic and social disparities.
Relying on the private market to build homes to address homelessness will only create barriers for those needing an affordable place to live, English said.
“You get discriminated against as a homeless person. There’s so many barriers to moving forward in a person’s life and so I felt that we needed to have a bigger conversation about it.”–Al Wiebe
“As long as we continue to commodify housing, landlords, builders — they want to make money … the kinds of housing that we need to get us out of the crisis that we’re in is not revenue-generating housing,” she said.
In March, the City of Winnipeg said it would devote up to $27.5 million in federal housing funding on grants for new multifamily residential projects and resources to run the program.
Council voted to spend federal housing accelerator funds this year, which will include $25 million for a capital grant program to support new multifamily housing projects that include affordable housing.
English remains skeptical of the city’s housing plan, saying the spending won’t move the needle on homelessness.
“There’s a very, very small percentage of that earmarked for affordable (housing) and zero for rent-geared-to-income housing. So what are we actually talking about? We’re talking about using that kind of capital investment to build housing for the middle class. So it feels very short-sighted right now,” she said.
Provincially, the NDP government’s 2024 budget set aside $116 million to build at least 350 social and affordable housing units, and repair more than 3,000 others.
When elected, Premier Wab Kinew set a goal of ending chronic homelessness in two terms and created the role of minister of housing, addictions and homelessness. Bernadette Smith, the minister of that department, previously told the Free Press her government believes housing plus wraparound supports is key.
Wiebe, Santos and English agree, but say taking advice from those with lived experience, like those at the symposium, is the best place to start to address chronic homelessness.
“We have all of the experts here … listen to them,” Wiebe said.
nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca
Nicole Buffie
Multimedia producer
Nicole Buffie is a multimedia producer who reports for the Free Press city desk.