Point Douglas group has 'serious concern' after non-profit agency helps set up homeless camp
'This seems to us to be a 100% waste of taxpayers' funds': residents committee
A residents' group is accusing a long-standing Winnipeg community health agency of helping to set up a homeless camp in Point Douglas.
In a letter dated May 21 and addressed to Main Street Project, the Point Douglas Residents Committee says it has "serious concern about an incident" on May 20, when someone saw an agency van pull up near the riverbank and drop people off with a tent, tarp, suitcases and supplies.
"The items were dragged down to the riverbank, with the assistance of Main Street Project workers, to establish a campsite. This incident occurred shortly after Point Douglas residents had just finished cleaning up the area from a previous abandoned encampment," the letter says.
The person who witnessed the incident, Howard Warren, told CBC News it happened late Tuesday morning just south of where Sekirk Avenue dead ends at the river.
There were two MSP staffers and two people who later settled into the camp, he said. It took several trips between the van and riverbank — about 45 minutes — to unload everything before the van left again with just the MSP staff.
The following morning other MSP staff showed up and took water and other items down to the river, Warren said. He said he stopped them on their way back and asked whether the agency ever helps set up camps.
They said that would never happen, but then changed their response after he showed them video of it happening, Warren said.
"They claimed that the police told them to do it," he said.
The camp had been located elsewhere and police were concerned the river would flood them out, so the officers told them to move and asked the MSP staff to help, according to Warren.
"I don't know about the whole story [but] I found it interesting that when I first asked them about it, it was a flat denial."
He then brought the issue to the attention of the residents' committee.
"It is our understanding that Main Street Project vans are meant to support transportation to hospitals or shelters, not to facilitate the setup of new encampments in environmentally sensitive and publicly accessible areas," the committee's letter to MSP states.
A police spokesperson would neither confirm nor deny to CBC News that officers asked MSP staff to relocate the individuals, but did say police were not on scene when "MSP allegedly dropped those people off."
The province launched the Your Way Home strategy earlier this year, aimed at ending chronic homelessness in Manitoba by methodically decommissioning encampments and moving people into housing.
"Nobody should have to call a tent a home when we live in such a rich country," Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said earlier this month at an event to announce more housing units in Winnipeg as part of the strategy.
Enabling and supporting an encampment is also at odds with Main Street Project's own organizational policies and mission, the letter from the Point Douglas Residents Committee says.
Main Street Project, which has been around since 1972, describes itself as using a housing-first and harm-reduction approach to achieve measurable success in the journey to end homelessness.
"The optics of this are very much confusing," the letter says.
"On the one hand, using taxpayers' dollars to fund one program that helps unsheltered people get a proper roof over their heads and, at the same time, using taxpayers' dollars in the form of an NGO to place the very same people back in the unsanitary, unsafe, environmentally destructive environs of the riverbanks.
"This seems to us to be a 100 per cent waste of taxpayers' funds, and fundamentally contradicts the spirit of what is meant by 'finding their way home.'"
The letter also highlights the environmental risks of encampments, saying they contribute to riverbank erosion and the destruction of biodiversity, and increase the risk of future flooding, thereby putting homes and infrastructure in jeopardy.
"What steps are being taken to ensure your outreach work does not unintentionally increase environmental or community risk?" it says.
"We would appreciate a response to this matter and clarification on how such actions fit within your organization's scope and with the broader goals of the city and province."
The letter was cc'd to Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham, Premier Wab Kinew, the United Way, End Homelessness Winnipeg, MLA Carrie Hiebert, who's the Progressive Conservative housing, addictions and homelessness critic, and the Winnipeg Foundation, which provides funding to Main Street Project.
The agency also gets funding from other sources, including the provincial and federal governments, as well as private donors and through community fundraisers.
Main Street Project communications manager Cindy Titus said nobody at the agency was available for an interview Friday morning but provided a copy of the response letter from MSP executive director Jamil Mahmood.
In it, Mahmood said he couldn't get into details about what happened for privacy reasons but welcomed the opportunity to discuss MSP's work and approach.
"We're confident you will understand and empathize with the fact that supporting people experiencing homelessness is complex and nuanced, and there are no simple solutions in any given situation," his letter says.
It directed the residents committee to review Main Street Project's strategic plan and other documents that "describe in detail why people live in encampments and how extreme the shortage of affordable housing is."
"Any action you may see our outreach team undertaking will align with our organizational scope, policies, and mission, and is guided by these documents," Mahmood's letter says.
MSM notes it's working with the province to house people from encampments.
Mahmood invited the residents group to meet in person to further discuss the "very complex" work done by MSP.
'I don't want to see people in tents': mayor
Gillingham said Friday afternoon the city is looking into the situation.
"I don't want to see people in tents," he said. "I don't want to see people living down by the riverbank. I don't want to see people living in parks. I don't want agencies in any way helping people to do that," he said.
"We want to get everybody moved out of there into housing with wraparound supports. Right now, we don't have enough housing. We're working on that."
Housing Minister Bernadette Smith said in a statement the province has been in contact with MSP to ensure "all outreach efforts serve to move people into homes."
Jason Whitford, CEO of End Homelessness Winnipeg, said in a statement Friday afternoon MSP does not support establishing encampments, but outreach workers are left with only "limited and ethically complex" choices when people have no safe shelter options immediately available.
The organization said it will be meeting area residents, MSP and the province to go over what happened.
The Point Douglas Residents Committee said it will be following up with MSP regarding a meeting, but that it would like to know from them whether it's current procedure to shelter people on riverbanks.
With files from Josh Crabb and Cameron MacLean