Large piles of garbage around tents or wooden shelters have been a familiar sight for neighbours of homeless encampments in and around Mostyn Place Park for more than four years.
So, too, have been fires and other concerns that have left some neighbours questioning the approach to Winnipeg’s homelessness crisis and the progress so far to tackle it.
“Nobody does anything about (the encampments in Mostyn Place Park). They just turn the other way,” said a senior who lives in an adjacent apartment building.
“They have to move (the encampments). This can’t continue. Someone’s going to get murdered out there. There’s going to be a big fire. It’s inevitable.”
The man agreed to an interview on condition of anonymity. He has spoken out in the past about concerns and calls or emails to the city, but now worries about retribution.
“If you lived here, you’d know why,” he said. “I’ve seen so much crime and violence. It’s intimidating.”
Other neighbours spoke of longstanding concerns, but did not want to be named.
City staff were preparing to remove garbage from the park on Granite Way, just west of the legislature, after a person living nearby contacted Mayor Scott Gillingham’s office and the Free Press.
Cleanups happen regularly in the West Broadway-area park, said the senior, who suggested a sanctioned encampment could help to solve some issues at long-running encampments and direct homeless people to supports.
“The current approach is enabling them to stay,” he said. “Find a stretch of land that’s not going to impinge on people — it’s very difficult to find that — and say, ‘You can live here,’ and then enforce it,” he said.
St. Boniface Street Links executive director Marion Willis supports sanctioned encampments as a temporary step and a complement to a “housing first” approach that rapidly gets people into homes with supports for things such as addictions and mental-health issues.
She said sanctioned sites could be “triage centres,” with outreach staff, toilets, clean water and other essential services on hand, to connect people with supportive housing.
“The reason we need them is because we’ve already delivered the message that you can live on a riverbank or on Crown land,” Willis said.
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Encampments along the riverbanks of Granite Way.
“It’s inhumane to leave people out there because it’s their right. Far too many people are dying out there.”
City policy takes a human-rights based approach to encampments on public land. Staff help residents find shelter space whenever possible.
“On assessing whether to vacate an encampment, city staff will only intervene if there is an immediate risk to public or personal safety as a result of the activity in the encampment,” spokesman Kalen Qually wrote in an email.
People could be told to leave if a pattern of persistent behaviour creates a risk to life and safety, according to city policy.
Gillingham said he feels for residents who are frustrated about encampments next to their homes. He said the city is working with the province, which oversees addictions and mental-health services, and is in talks with Ottawa about a share of $250 million in new federal funding for shelter spaces and transitional homes.
“We need to get people into housing,” said Gillingham, who expressed skepticism of sanctioned or designated encampments. “In other cities, it hasn’t solved the problems.”
Hamilton, Ont., recently approved a temporary sanctioned encampment — with an annual operating cost of about $4 million plus about $3 million in startup costs — alongside more shelter beds.
The staffed site on a city lot will have 40 cabin-like shelters and access to supports, along with washrooms, showers and laundry services.
Some cities, including Halifax, have designated areas for tents, but with limited services. Vancouver recently closed a temporary designated tent area in a city park, citing costs of about $21,000 per week and a desire to return the space to the public.
Manitoba’s NDP government has pledged to end chronic homelessness in two terms. Premier Wab Kinew said about 1,200 people have been housed since the 2023 election.
“Far too many people are dying out there.”–Marion Willis
He acknowledged homelessness is an area where the government has to show more improvement, but it will take some time.
“Having people stay in tents long term is not part of the plan,” Kinew said before Tuesday’s throne speech. “I recognize there’s some folks who maybe want to make an argument about, ‘Success looks different for different people in different parts of life,’ but do you know what?
“As a society, we do not accept when people are not of sound mind that we allow them to continue suffering.”
The premier said the solution is housing first with compassion and wraparound supports.
The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness does not support designated encampments. President and CEO Tim Richter argued the sites are not cost-effective, not entirely safe and prolong homelessness.
“(Supportive housing) is cheaper, it’s effective and it’s a permanent solution,” he said.
The senior who lives next to Mostyn Place Park said a serviced sanctioned site would be a better option than the encampment he sees daily.
He said he regularly observes drug use, people in states of crisis, a lack of sanitation and needles on the ground. Propane tanks have exploded near the apartment building.
He recently called Child and Family Services after seeing a young girl playing with toys at the camp.
“It’s horrific to see that this is her life,” the man said, noting the child is no longer there.
“Having people stay in tents long term is not part of the plan.”–Premier Wab Kinew
Winnipeg’s 311 service has received 34 reports about an occupied encampment or debris from an encampment near Granite Way since Jan. 1, 2022, Qually said.
He said the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service has responded to a fire or medical-related incident 113 times since then, and visited an encampment to check in or give fire-prevention information 70 times.
The Winnipeg Police Service has responded to reports of crime and public safety concerns at encampments near Granite Way.
“It is hard to provide an exact number of calls due to the fact there are numerous encampments all within a very close radius that are linked to several different addresses,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
Some encampments in the area have been abandoned as temperatures have fallen, leaving a large amount of waste and debris behind, the spokesperson said.
chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca
Chris Kitching
Reporter
Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.
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