Following months of outreach work, 'elaborate and sophisticated' homeless camp dismantled

A crew of nearly a dozendismantled an encampment in a small park near Winnipeg'sLouise Bridge in the space of a few hours Tuesday but it took many months to convince the young man who lived in the camp thatit was time to leave.

Marion Willis, the executive director of Morberg House and St. Boniface Street Links, says the camp was the most "most elaborate and sophisticated" she's ever seen.

Gesturing to a space dozens of metres across, Willis says the makeshift shelter had several rooms and was very well constructed.

"It went way over there to way back here and all the way to the river, including a home-made dock on the river to fish from," Willis told CBC News. "This kid is an absolute genius and has amazing skills."

Morberg House and St. Boniface Street Links have been working to help get people living in temporary encampments in Winnipeg intohousing and treatment. The camp they took down Tuesday was the eighth they've dismantled inthe last few months, after connectingthe residents with help.

This past spring, staff from St. Boniface Street Links began buildinga relationship with the 20-year-old who built the encampment near the Louise Bridge.

Willis says they made connections once or twice a day with the man to check on his well-being, and offer food and conversation.

The man had aged out of child and family services system care and had no connections with any relatives.

"If you haven't that relationship to your family, you are just a lone wolf in the world," Willis said.

Eventuallyconnections weremade to a cousin and a grandfather andthe young man slowly workedtoward a decision to leave his riverbank camp.

"He connected to his grandfather, and that makes all the difference. I spoke with his grandfather yesterday and he actually cried when I told him we would see them both at Morberg House," Willis said, referring to the transitional residence for men struggling with addictions and homelessness.

On Tuesday morning, personal belongings, scrapbuilding material and other items filled long trailers as volunteers with the Street Links outreach groupworked in the park to clear the camp's debris.

Willis, who is outspoken on matters ofhow to better serve people facing mental health and addictions challenges, believes bureaucracy gets in the way of solving some of the many issues for people living rough in the city.

The bureaucrats "don't talk to each otherand they don't talk to us," Willis said, citing obstacles to getting identification, housing, mental health and addictions counselling and social assistance benefits.

Willis says the greater challenge is notbreaking down the barriers between her staff and the people who need help,but those between government departments.

"You're all still in the silo, and if you don't get out of the silo and invite all these other departments and players to the table, you know, we've justwasted everybody's time," Willis said as the last truck of debris from the encampment headed off.

Cutting those layers of bureaucracy would speed up the process of getting people who most need helpinto treatment, housing, school and work, Willis said.

Homeless camp dismantled

3 years ago

Duration 2:25

A crew of nearly a dozen dismantled an encampment in a small park near Winnipeg's Louise Bridge in the space of a few hours Tuesday but it took many months to convince the young man who lived in the camp that it was time to leave.