GOLD: Assiniboine condo residents, overwhelmed by encampment chaos, send SOS to Kinew

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Living near the Forks is used as a selling point by the City of Winnipeg to get older people downsizing or retiring to move into downtown Winnipeg.

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Some who liked the concept bought a condo at 390 Assiniboine along the Assiniboine River. The last thing they expected was a problem with the neighbours.

But when the definition of “neighbours” morphed into allowing violent homeless criminals to occupy McFadyen Park, the problems proved an around-the-clock nightmare.

The condo residents have endured a barrage of graffiti, drug dealing, theft, vandalism, car break-ins, robberies, assaults, and a parade of stolen bikes heading to the chop shop at all hours. They also see and hear the turmoil on the Fort Rouge side of the river.

They turned to the City of Winnipeg for help. What they got, was a lesson in woke 21st-century civic government, where politics, ideology, and disregard for taxpaying residents is accelerating the decline of Winnipeg’s downtown.

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Unsafe River Trail

Theresa Hunter provided The Sun with an email sent to area councillor Sherri Rollins, Mayor Scott Gillingham, nine other councillors and other officials on Sept. 24. She outlined how, “It’s worse than it has ever been in the almost six years residents here have been trying to work with our Councillor Sherri Rollins and the City of Winnipeg.”

She noted that “the encampments continue to grow along the Assiniboine Ave., riverbank and more people with mental health problems and addiction issues are living untreated without support and making the area, our community and the River Trail more unsafe.”

Hunter also exposed how the “mindful cleanups” conducted by city-funded agencies are a charade.

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“Four WFPS trucks attended another open fire on Friday night. Downtown Community Safety Patrols come in and pull out some garbage and leave it in a pile for pickup and the homeless rifle through it and drag more back into the encampment. Repeat the following week in a never-ending cycle. Remains of a fire from April 6 are still evident on the riverbank.”

Open defecation

When I met with Hunter and some other residents, I learned they share the same experiences as people living near Mostyn Park, at 300 Assiniboine, and at 500 Waterfront that I’ve reported on this year. The city is allowing the homeless to dictate their quality of life.

Randie Einarson grew up in the West End, then moved to Toronto for 10 years. She lived just south of the city before moving downtown in August of 2023.

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“We have our own walkway to the riverfront, and you could see the tents, the mess, the garbage. I’d never seen that before. It was kind of shocking.”

What she’s seen has included stolen electricity, blazing fires, open defecation on property, in parks and into the rivers and innumerable discarded needles.

The river walk extends from the Forks west through Bonnycastle Park, past McFadyen Park, and to the Osborne Bridge. This is what tourists get exposed to when they walk by.

But Einarson and her fellow tenants have to live right next to it.

One of the taxes the condo owners pay is the Community Revitalization Tax, that is “imposed and is payable in lieu of school taxes.”

But these lawless encampments are wrecking their community, not revitalizing it. It’s insult after injury to make them pay it.

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She believes that their property taxes should be reduced because of the squalor and danger residents face. But when it was raised by “a bunch of us” who brought photos to appeal their assessments, “they were pretending they didn’t know about this.”

Politicians scared to act

Another resident, Eric Grehan, served in the military for 36 years in war-torn posts like Lebanon and the Sudan before eventually settling into the condos. Retirement has hardly been “quiet” for him.

“One of the things I came to find out pretty quick is we have organizations that are for-profit so they have no plan to go out of business. There’s an encouragement to feed an ongoing scenario we find ourselves in.”

Grehan believes the Charter rights of the homeless have been distorted by the courts to the point that “their interpretation is simply wrong. If you don’t understand the difference between right and wrong, you shouldn’t be in that position. And our politicians here are scared (to act).”

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“There’s no toilets or washroom facilities (near the encampments). There’s needles throughout McFadyen Park. I mean, there’s filth, and then there’s filth.”

His view is that people don’t understand history and when mental health facilities were closed down decades ago, “the result shows up on our streets, with nothing in our plans to look after these people in a long-term way.”

“The basic mistake is feeding their drug habits. To me it’s criminal. Even if they find these folks homes, there’s no guarantee they won’t be back here.”

Grehan was assaulted going to play pickleball in the park but at least his assailant didn’t have an “edged weapon.”

Another resident who has since moved — a City employee — was attacked by an aggressive riverbank addict swinging a hatchet.

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Charges were filed with the police and a restraining order issued. The goon continued to show up and utter threats on three other occasions, yet one media outlet portrayed him as just a nice homeless guy keeping the riverbank clean.

City enabling the homeless to deteriorate

People are living in hell on the riverbanks and they’re making life hell for residents trying to live their lives in peace.

As Hunter points out, “encampments are detrimental to public safety and the psychological well-being of all other citizens as neighbourhood viability declines.”

The city policy asserts it’s a “human right” to live and die in a riverbank encampment and promotes so-called harm reduction.

That approach doesn’t even meet the basic needs of the campers but does result in needing to send in fire and emergency crews two or three times a day.

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“Addictions and mental health issues cannot be treated or supported when someone is living under a tarp,” Hunter said. “The practice increases crime, disorder and biohazards. Allowing and enabling the homeless to deteriorate on our streets when they are not capable of caring for themselves is not humane.”

Mayor Gillingham met with some of the residents in May and according to Hunter’s notes, “he advised that the encampments on the Assiniboine River banks will be permitted indefinitely until housing can be provided.”

Einarson and Grehan mentioned that there are no encampments near individuals like Gillingham who are making decisions that undermine others’ safety and that of everyone else downtown.

Many of the condo owners have a view of the Manitoba Legislature. Since the City of Winnipeg refuses to take any action to protect the neighbourhood, I asked Hunter what message they would like to send Premier Wab Kinew.

“Please, help us. Please.”

— Marty Gold is a Winnipeg journalist. You can find more of his work at The Great Canadian Talk Show.

Have thoughts on what’s going on in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada or across the world? Send us a letter to the editor at wpgsun.letters@kleinmedia.ca

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