Encampment controversy highlights debate over how to tackle homelessness: Winnipeg councillor

Controversy over a riverbank encampment in south Winnipeg is exposing a debate over how best to deal with homelessness.

The camp along a well-hidden path in the city's Glengarry Park on the west bank of the Red River and south of Abinojii Mikanah is where Alan Urrutia lives.

The people who call the camp home"work together as a team, as a unit, as a family," Urrutia said Thursday. "It's more about moral support, because we need each other."

Police stopped by the encampment on Thursday to do a community safety check. Outreach workers have also visited the camp, some of them urging its residents to move indoors.

But Urrutia said he prefers to live outdoors and doesn't want to break up the family he's found in the encampment, where residents are all responsible for jobs like cooking and dealing with garbage.

"We don't like the homeless shelters, but we like the wilderness," Urrutia said. "We're not bothering these people here. Maybe it's a little dirty. Yeah, I'll admit that. But we'll clean that up."

Some in the area disagree, like Leslie Wiens, who said while his "heart goes out to" people in the encampment, he's concernedabout unsanitary conditions, noise and evidence of drug use over the years the encampment has been near his home.

"It's meant that I've stayed indoors a lot more than I normally would," said Wiens. "We lived here for years without locking our front door, and we don't go anywhere without locking our front door now."

Street Links, Main Street take different approaches

Two organizations that partner with the city have been working with the camp, but they take different approaches to that work.

St. Boniface Street Links said it believes in finding people homes before addressing issues like mental illness and drug use, while Main Street Project said it takes a human rights-based approach and supports people experiencing homelessness wherever they are.

Area Coun. Janice Lukes(Waverley West) saidresidents have told her it's frustrating to watch those opposing philosophies in practice.

"Street Links came and they got the names [of camp residents] the social insurance numbers, the ages, a bit of history on all the individuals. They got them to sign a paper that they were willing to relocate. They helped them pack up their personal belongings in carts," she said.

"And multiple individuals from Main Street Project came down at the same time Street Links was there and started talking to people saying, 'No, you don't need to go, you have rights. Your right is to stay on this encampment and stay here. And here, do you want some coffee and cookies?'"

Wiens said he understands both approaches, but thinks one that doesn't focus on getting people housing as a first step "just seems to be putting a Band-Aid on the problem" without addressing the root causes of homelessness.

Neighbour Steve Ahing also said he sympathizes with the people living in the encampment near his home, but wishes governments and the groups working with them were more co-ordinated.

"Right now it seems like there's a need for one person, one department and all the social agencies to be on the same page with an appropriate budget," he said.

'Firmer approach' needed: councillor

Coun. Lukes said while some people living in encampments may want to stay there, she believes "a bit firmer approach needs to be taken," in part because of what she called the "astronomical" health risks of living somewhere with no washrooms or sanitation.

"It's nice that you want to live like this, but you know what? For your own good, it's not healthy, and it's not healthy for society. I think a lot of people in the city feel that way," she said, adding that many people experiencing homelessness are dealing with trauma and need to be approached with compassion.

A spokesperson for Mayor Scott Gillingham's office emphasized the need for government and community partners to work together on a single co-ordinated plan to address homelessness in Winnipeg "that includes housing first, wraparound support services and effective data tracking."

A city spokesperson said while the city is aware of the encampment, its staff will only intervene if there's an immediate risk to public or personal safety because of activity in the encampment. Structures in encampments only get removed if activities or living conditions there are dangerous.

For encampment resident Urrutia, there's no need for those kinds of concerns about his home.

"That's just how people think, I guess," he said. "If they see a homeless person, somebody that's down on their luck, they're going to make assumptions. And we're not like that."

The city spokesperson said there are no plans to make the encampment residents leave the site.

Encampment in south Winnipeg highlights debate over homelessness

3 months ago

Duration 2:06

ome University Heights residents are calling for a unified approach to helping members of a homeless encampment along the Red River in Glengarry Park, while campers say they are no threat to the neighbourhood.