New homeless camps off the table, Manitoba government tells Main Street Project
The province has put Main Street Project on notice after agency workers were captured on video helping set up a homeless encampment in Point Douglas last week where one had recently been cleared.
Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith has directed MSP — one of the key players in the province's Your Way Home strategy to end homelessness — and other service delivery organizations not to move people into encampments.
'I have talked to them about this situation,' Smith said in an interview with the Free Press Monday.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Minister of housing, addictions and homelessness Bernadette Smith has directed the Main Street Project and other service delivery organizations not to move people into encampments.
'Going forward, it's from encampment to housing. The Your Way Home strategy outlines that pretty clearly,' she said.
The stated goal of Your Way Home, the two-year $20-million initiative announced by Premier Wab Kinew in January is moving people living outside into appropriate housing with needed supports, one camp at a time. The sites are to be cleaned up afterward, with city crews monitoring to ensure they're not reoccupied.
'If there are situations where we don't have housing available and there is an unsafe condition and there's unique circumstances, then they are to get in touch with us and we will deal with those, case by case,' Smith said.
'All of the service delivery organizations have known that that is the strategy and, moving forward, that is what everyone needs to follow.'
A Point Douglas resident captured video last Tuesday of a Main Street Project outreach van dropping off two individuals, along with a tent, tarp, suitcases and other supplies. Two agency workers helped drag the equipment down to the riverbank and assisted in setting up the shelter.
The resident, Howard Warren, informed the Point Douglas Residents Committee, which composed a letter raising several neighbourhood concerns that was sent to MSP and copied to Kinew, Mayor Scott Gillingham, the Progressive Conservative housing critic, End Homelessness Winnipeg, the United Way and the Winnipeg Foundation.
Smith said both individuals in the encampment were moved into housing over the weekend.
'We are all on the same page that we need to get people into housing.'–Minister Bernadette Smith
MSP — a non-profit health organization largely funded with public money via various government programs and grants — has declined repeated Free Press requests for comment since the letter was revealed last Thursday; a promised statement Monday afternoon did not materialize.
Smith said she spoke to Gillingham Monday, and that he is 'on board' with her directive to MSP executives.
'We are all on the same page that we need to get people into housing,' she said. 'If housing isn't available, and there are unique circumstances, we will deal with them as they arise.'
Earlier in the day at an unrelated event, Gillingham mentioned that End Homelessness Winnipeg — an Indigenous housing advocate organization responsible for distributing federal program funds — plans to convene a meeting of representatives from homelessness agencies, the province and city to discuss the Point Douglas Residents Committee's concerns.
The matter was raised during question period in the Manitoba legislature Monday by Morden-Winkler MLA Carrie Hiebert, the Tories' housing, addictions and homelessness critic, who wanted to know whether Smith could ensure no taxpayer dollars would be used to help set up new encampments.
Smith said rather than address the growing number of homeless people, the former PC government sold off social housing units, making matters worse.
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'I've talked to some of those folks that are in encampments that were living in those units that are now getting wraparound supports,' she said afterward. 'They're on a path to whatever it is that they want to succeed at in their life, whether it's reunification with their families or getting into a program so they can build their skills and get into the workforce or stable housing.'
SCOTT BILLECK / FREE PRESS
'These are Manitobans that deserve to live in dignified housing. Manitobans were pretty clear they didn't want to see folks living in encampments, bus shelters, under bridges. The previous government left people in those situations.
'We're going to continue to support and get housing online and get people out of encampments with the supports they need.'
— With files from Joyanne Pursaga
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Carol SandersLegislature reporter
Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.
Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
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