Pair found dead in tent at Point Douglas park sparks fear for homeless as winter looms
People 'shouldn't lose their lives to the elements,' tearful housing minister says
The deaths of two people in a Point Douglas park have neighbourhood residents, homeless advocates and government officials concerned about the toll the recent cold weather is having on the city's most vulnerable.
Paramedics were called to Joe Zuken Park following a report of two people in cardiac arrest in a tent Monday afternoon. By the time they arrived, the two people were dead.
The Office of the Medical Examiner is investigating the deaths, but a cause of death will not be released publicly because it is private medical information, a representative told CBC News on Tuesday.
Bernadette Smith, Manitoba's housing and homelessness minister, in tears following an announcement of government support for addictions services, said the provincial government is trying to expand outreach resources to people who aren't using shelters.
"It really was tough this morning, to see that people have lost their life to this," Smith told reporters.
"It's something that you don't want to see. You want to make sure that there's resources so people aren't having to lose their life to the elements."
Smith's constituency includes the park where the two people died, a neighbourhood that resident Catherine Flynn says has not received enough attention from governments or homeless outreach organizations.
"It's a real piecemeal approach," said Flynn, chair of the Point Douglas Residents' Committee.
"Some organizations handle St. Boniface, and some organizations handle downtown, and it looks to me, from where I sit, nobody handles Point Douglas."
Last month, the City of Winnipeg and End Homelessness Winnipeg-Reaching Home gave $265,000 to open an expanded pop-up shelter at Siloam Mission whenever temperatures are forecast to feel like -10 C with the windchill three days in advance, and when other emergency shelters are full.
"It's totally devastating to have lost life this winter already," Siloam Mission executive director Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud said in an interview.
"We know that it happens every year and we need to do better at preparing as a city to make sure that it stops happening."
The way we do that, she said, "is by building the deeply affordable housing that these people need to live in, with wrap-around support."
A Point Douglas resident who spoke with CBC News but did not want to give his name, said he walks through Joe Zuken Park every day, and had seen the tent there for about a month.
The tent remained in the park on Tuesday. A propane tank and gas-powered heater lay on the ground next to it.
Flynn says she wants the city to take a different approach in dealing with homelessness.
"There's been a lot of talk about, you know, people have a right to live on the land in tents and they have a right to inhabit bus shelters," she said.
"I would like to see a concerted effort to find people decent places to live, because often they're not in decent places and that's why they're living in tents."
The province recently boosted funding to emergency shelters to expand their operating hours.
After fire paramedics raised concerns about safety in homeless camps, the city delegated responsibility for checking on them to multiple people, which had previously been done by one person.
St Boniface Street Links founder Marion Willis says winter so far has been mild and will soon get worse.
"January is weeks away and the winter will rear its ugly head soon and people will struggle to survive."
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With files from Alana Cole, Anne-Louise Michel, and Victor Lhoest