Province, city too slow to secure housing for people living in encampments, North Point Douglas residents say

Dozens of people have found homes through the Manitoba government's plan to end chronic homelessness since January, but one man living in a Winnipeg homeless encampment says many vulnerable people are waiting too long for a roof over their heads and the supports they need.

Marcus Daniels-Francis, 26, has been living in a riverbank encampment near the North Point Douglas neighbourhood for the past two months. He says he's known about four or five people who have found housing through the provincial Your Way Home strategy. 

The province says 59 people have been placed into housing since the strategy was introduced in January. About 90 per cent of people have moved into social or affordable housing, with 10 per cent going to private, market-rate housing. 

In a statement to CBC News on Saturday Housing and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith, who is the MLA for Point Douglas, said the government is working with the city and Main Street Project to "move people from tents into housing with wraparound supports."

Smith said all 59 people are still housed. 

"From what I've seen, the government definitely has been helping people out, getting people off the encampments. But they aren't helping enough people yet," Daniels-Francis said. 

"It's a slow pace," he said. 

Daniels-Francis, who is a member of Long Plain First Nation, said he will be moving into his own apartment on Aug. 1, without help from the provincial program. He said he is enrolled in school and will be studying to become a welder. He said he will also be undergoing treatment for alcohol addiction. 

He said ongoing support for addictions and mental health should be a key part of the government's strategy, otherwise people will fall into the same patterns — as he has in the past —of getting and losing housing.

"It'll be nice. I'll be able to cook my own food. I'll be able to sleep when I want to go to sleep, wake up when I want to wake up," Daniels-Francis said, adding it can be difficult to sleep in the encampment due to loud fights and other noise from his neighbours. 

North Point Douglas resident Howard Warren said he has been struggling to sleep for two weeks as noise from a nearby encampment has kept him up at night. He said it's the "seventh summer of absolute chaos" living in his neighbourhood.

Despite feeling encouraged that the province's strategy has found housing for some, Warren said it's not helping people fast enough and "we have to do more."

"We want the best for them … we're very sympathetic to the situation," he said. 

Over the past few summers, Warren said he has been woken by a man trying to enter his home at 2 a.m., had property stolen, and even had a gun pointed at his head after trying to provide water to a woman on the riverbank.  

Last week, he wrote a letter to Mayor Scott Gillingham and city council asking for help.

"This is such a regular, ongoing daily, nightly occurrence ... When you reach the end of  your tether, you kind of snap. I thought I really need to address this in a different way than it has been so far," Warren said.

In his letter, he questioned what he calls the outreach approach of Main Street Project, a local non-profit organization that received an exclusive contract from the city to handle all outreach calls at Winnipeg encampments earlier this month. 

Warren wondered why outreach group St. Boniface Street Links was cut off from municipal funding. The city had previously split outreach funding between Main Street Project, St. Boniface Street Links, and Resource Assistance for Youth. 

Warren previously spoke to CBC News in May after he said he witnessed Main Street Project workers set up an encampment along the riverbank in his community. 

"Following the 'human-rights approach,' as Main Street Project puts it, I don't see that as alleviating either the suffering and misery of the unhoused folks or the communities that are greatly affected by it," Warren said. 

Earlier this month, Coun. Cindy Gilroy tabled a motion to ban encampments from some public places like parks and pools. This week, Coun. Jeff Browaty said he would like to see tents barred beside major roadways as well. 

Mynarski Coun. Ross Eadie, whose ward includes the North Point Douglas neighbourhood, responded to Warren's letter on Friday in a document viewed by CBC News. 

Eadie wrote that he will allocate funding to St. Boniface Street Links and the city should do the same. 

"I am making the decision right here to use up the rest of the Mynarski Ward Community fund balance for this organization to deal with encampments in the Mynarski Ward. I shouldn't have to as other needs in my ward need this money, but my residents have spoken," Eadie wrote. 

Warren told CBC News he was "extremely encouraged" by Eadie's response and planned to write back thanking his councillor. 

He was also encouraged that Manitoba's Your Way Home strategy had housed 59 people since January. But at less than 10 people housed per month over the last six months, Warren said the province must pick up the pace. 

"It just fundamentally sounds like they could be adopting more of a model to get people in houses and get people the help they need, they desperately need," Warren said. 

"I know it takes a big ship a long time to turn, but it's seven straight summers of this and it's going throughout the winter now too."