Winnipeg mayor wants next mobile outreach contractors 'fully committed' to strategy to end homelessness
Current contract with 3 providers expires at end of June
Organizations that receive the city's next contract to provide mobile outreach services to people living in encampments should be fully committed to the provincial government's strategy to end homelessness, Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham says.
Teams of outreach workers funded by the city provide services to people living in encampments 24 hours a day. The city's current contract expires at the end of June.
A request for proposals posted on the city's website on Thursday includes a requirement that proposals align with the province's Your Way Home strategy.
"We're going to provide funding only to those organizations who are fully committed to and complying with the Your Way Home strategy," Gillingham told reporters on Friday.
Under the Manitoba government's Your Way Home strategy, the province has begun purchasing housing units, while the city funds outreach groups to connect people living on the streets with supports.
Disagreements over how to get people out of camps and into housing have emerged in the past, with some groups focusing on housing first, while others work to support people wherever they are.
This week, residents in Point Douglas accused Main Street Project, a long-standing Winnipeg outreach agency, of helping to set up a homeless camp in Point Douglas. A letter outlining details of the incident was copied to Gillingham's office.
In a copy of a response letter sent to CBC News, MSP executive director Jamil Mahmood said it is working with the province to get people out of encampments, but that work is "complex and nuanced," in part due to a shortage of housing.
"There may be different philosophies, you know, when it comes to homelessness," Gillingham said. "We want to make sure that we are funding those agencies that are working in full alliance with and partnership with the Province Manitoba strategy, and our strategy as well."
Since 2022, the city has contracted with MSP, St. Boniface Street Links and Resource Assistance for Youth to provide mobile outreach services.
Outreach worker 'disheartened'
The executive director of St. Boniface Street Links says they've cleared away 26 encampments this year, many of them from places along the east bank of the Red River. Marion Willis says she supports the province's strategy, but she's not sure whether they'll apply for the city's funding.
She says the plan lacks an adequate housing supply, and funding for supports.
"I'm a little disheartened, I'm not going to lie," Willis said.
"None of us really understand the You Way Home plan. You know, if I'm to take that RFP (request for proposal) from the city and I'm to align that with the provincial strategy to end homelessness, I'm not sure what that is."
Earlier this month, the province said it had rehoused 33 people out of tents and into housing since February.
Willis said the progress has been slow.
"I kind of feel like the province in the city are both kind of walking back on the commitment to proactively get people out of encampments," she said.
Chris Brens, the city's manager of community development, says the province plans to do a significant amount of work over the next seven years to reduce homelessness. Part of that work, in the initial year, is to create new housing spaces.
"The outreach service provider support that the city is going to be funding would – if those housing units are available – be a key component of meeting with folks who may be living in encampments, and supporting them into accessing that housing, if appropriate," Brens said in an interview.
The city's contract would last until 2027 and is budgeted for $1.65 million, with $275,000 going to pay the city's existing contractors until the end of June.
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