Manitoba politicians are making their second visit to Houston in less than a year to learn more about the Texas city’s housing-first model.
Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith, the mayors of Thompson and Brandon are part of a delegation headed south later this week. Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham was part of the group that went to Houston in September.
That city is becoming internationally recognized for successfully housing people in its homeless population.
Minister of housing, addictions and homelessness Bernadette Smith (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press files)
More than 30,000 people received housing since 2012, and 90 per cent did not return to homelessness within two years.
However, as the Free Press learned during a February visit, there were major hurdles to clear.
“You just have to be willing to work through the absurdity,” said Kelly Young, president and CEO of the Coalition for the Homeless, the group tasked with overseeing Houston’s homelessness mandate.
Young explained that in 2009, the U.S. federal government passed an act requiring cities to adopt “housing-first” policies to access federal dollars. Groups addressing homelessness also had to start working together, sharing data and accepting oversight of one agency.
In 2011, Houston was red-flagged as a “priority city,” a warning to figure out what it was doing wrong and fix the problem.
In came the Coalition for the Homeless. The group had to get stakeholders all working toward the same goal, using the same strategies. But that came as a shock to well-intentioned groups that had to abandon their individual methods — prioritizing care for specific groups while competing for the same pot of money — and get on board with the new plan, which was to get people who were chronically homeless into permanent, supportive housing.
Today, it’s a collaborative effort that’s largely been hailed as a success.
Still, in Manitoba, groups working with people who are homeless aren’t convinced the model could work here. Those who spoke with the Free Press last winter said the province — and Winnipeg — need solutions tailored for the problems here.
Doing what Houston officials accomplished required government intervention to dictate the effort’s priorities and plans. To date, that hasn’t happened in Manitoba.
katrina.clarke@freepress.mb.ca
Katrina Clarke
Investigative reporter
Katrina Clarke is an investigative reporter at the Winnipeg Free Press. Katrina holds a bachelor’s degree in politics from Queen’s University and a master’s degree in journalism from Western University. She has worked at newspapers across Canada, including the National Post and the Toronto Star. She joined the Free Press in 2022. Read more about Katrina.
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