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Winnipeg Free Press
29-05-2025
- General
- Winnipeg Free Press
Your Way Home has moved 40 people from encampments into housing: Kinew
More than three dozen former occupants of outdoor encampments have been successfully moved into housing since a plan to end chronic homelessness was launched in January, Premier Wab Kinew said Wednesday. Kinew, answering a question in the legislature directed to Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith, said 40 people have been relocated so far. Progressive Conservative MLA Kathleen Cook had suggested the number was just 33, and wanted to know how many encampments that had been cleared are now being re-occupied. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Premier Wab Kinew said 40 people have so far been moved into housing and out of homeless encampments. Kinew said 37 of the 40 were moved into housing by Main Street Project. Last week, the Point Douglas Residents' Committee wrote a letter to the non-profit organization looking for answers after one of its vans and staff were recorded delivering tents and suitcases to a previously cleared riverbank site. The province's Your Way Home strategy calls for housing people with needed supports, clearing encampment sites and then ensuring that they're not reoccupied. On Monday, Smith said she has directed service providers to help people move out of encampments, not into them. Weekday Mornings A quick glance at the news for the upcoming day. At an unrelated press conference Wednesday morning, the premier was asked if he had an explanation or understanding of why Main Street Project was delivering tents and suitcases to an encampment. 'Yeah, I do. And I think we'll have more to share,' he said.
Winnipeg Free Press
09-05-2025
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
Province announces $6.4M for 67 units — some already in use — as part of homeless plan
Manitobans have begun settling into 67 new social housing units announced Friday as part of the provincial government's homelessness strategy. The Manitoba government is spending $6.4 million on the units, which were established in collaboration with Main Street Project, Siloam Mission and Sunshine House, as part of the Your Way Home plan, Premier Wab Kinew's strategy to end chronic homelessness within two terms. The units — some of which are ready now, others will be move-in ready over the next few months — are an effort to provide as much housing as possible as the weather warms and encampments become more prevalent around the city, said Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said the units are an effort to provide as much housing as possible as the weather warms. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said the units are an effort to provide as much housing as possible as the weather warms. 'We know that encampments pop up every year around this time. This is nothing new,' Smith said Friday morning. 'There's always lots of new encampments that pop up. This is why we're ramping up housing, we're trying to get as much housing online as possible, to get as many people into housing as possible. We know that there's a great need.' The units are spread across three buildings, whose locations are not being made public to keep people safe, a provincial spokesperson said. People using substances will be able to use while living in the units and will be offered on-site supports, including case managers and support workers. The funding includes supportive housing through Sunshine House for homeless LGBTTQ+ people. Those 14 units have already been filled with 16 people previously living in encampments, said Levi Foy, Sunshine House's executive director. 'Our housing team works with (residents) to allow them to envision and define what stability can look like for them,' Foy said. 'This can include getting residents connected with culture, connected with mental health services as well as addiction and treatment services.' MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Levi Foy, Sunshine House's executive director, said 14 units have already been filled with 16 people previously living in encampments. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Levi Foy, Sunshine House's executive director, said 14 units have already been filled with 16 people previously living in encampments. There have been 33 people moved from 17 encampments across the city into housing since the launch of the Your Way Home plan, with 28 being in the units announced Friday. None have returned to encampments, Smith said. Al Wiebe, a longtime homelessness advocate, said he was skeptical about the province's timeline to end chronic homelessness within eight years. 'It's not going to happen in anybody's lifetime, never mind anybody's term … because for every person that you house off the street, 1.5 come back on,' he said. Wiebe, who himself was previously homeless, said the plan did have merit in connecting Manitoba's support systems and helping them work in sync. He said one of his first jobs after finding housing was as a case manager, and it at times took seven or eight attempts to get a person into housing before they stayed. 'Everybody's pulling together in same direction, and that's a good thing. I worry about capacity to support them all. That's my biggest concern, because people do not stay in housing without supports. It's very hard,' he said. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Al Wiebe, a longtime homelessness advocate, said the plan has merit, but was skeptical about the province's timeline to end chronic homelessness within eight years but MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Al Wiebe, a longtime homelessness advocate, said the plan has merit, but was skeptical about the province's timeline to end chronic homelessness within eight years but Many of the tents that once lined Waterfront Drive along the river are gone, with the dirt under them worked up and garbage removed. A few tents, and people, remain. One told the Free Press he was there when people were being offered housing and the city was cleaning the grounds, but he had been let down before and was skeptical of the offer. 'I don't even bother anymore,' the man, who asked his name not be published, said. He had been living further down Waterfront Drive in another encampment that he said hasn't been cleared, but moved when he realized new space had opened up. He has been living on the streets in Winnipeg for about three years and works odd jobs to get by. 'It's my choice to live out here, and it's my choice to work,' he said. A woman at the encampment said she had previously lived by the river and moved elsewhere during the winter. She returned to find the area cleared out. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Elizabeth ended up in Winnipeg when she was discharged after a hospital stay with nowhere to go about a year ago. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Elizabeth ended up in Winnipeg when she was discharged after a hospital stay with nowhere to go about a year ago. Elizabeth, 26, said she'd gladly accept housing if it was offered to her, and would prefer it over shelter or street living. 'I'd feel safer in a home instead of in a building,' she said. Originally from Garden Hill First Nation, she ended up in Winnipeg when she was discharged after a hospital stay with nowhere to go about a year ago. She's working on getting sober and seeing her children again. 'Maybe I'll apply for a house,' she said. The provincial government estimates there are around 700 Manitobans living in encampments. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS An apartment is almost ready for a client once the paint has dried. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS An apartment is almost ready for a client once the paint has dried. Malak AbasReporter Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg's North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak. Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Curb expectations on province's grandiose homelessness strategy
Opinion When is success not politically successful? When it is not living up to expectations. In the past week or so, it has become patently clear the Manitoba government's efforts to remove homeless encampments and relocate residents to more stable, longer-term housing options with wraparound social services have not entirely lived up to expectations. Winnipeg encampments cleared from the banks of the Red River near Waterfront Drive started to reappear as spring weather improved. For many of the people who live and work in those neighborhoods, the return of camps is not only disheartening, it is prompting concerns the NDP may have bitten off more than it can chew on this file. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES An encampment along the river near Waterfront Drive in December. Encampments have started to reappear in the area. The disappointment centres on expectations created in January with release of Your Way Home, a multi-pronged program to relocate encampment residents to safer and more stable housing with a full array of health and social services. In a news release announcing the initiative, Premier Wab Kinew said 'a 30-day timeline beginning in February … will see the government move one encampment at a time into housing, including 300 new social units that have been purchased and will be supported by non-profit organizations.' There are a series of implications in this statement. Fairly interpreted, news media and the general public are fully entitled to believe the premier promised at least 300 people would be moved out of encampments — allowing many of them to be fully cleared — and into social housing within the first 30 days of the program launch. That's what the government said in its news release. But that's not apparently what the government meant. The fine print from Your Way Home states government has a 30-day timeline from first contact with a homeless person to relocation in social housing. It also says encampments will be cleared if and when enough of the people who call them home can be convinced to relocate. At current count, 30 chronically homeless people have been moved into stable social housing. Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said in an interview Monday she believes Your Way Home is on schedule. Smith said the problem is complex and it has proven difficult to find one kind of housing option that works for every homeless person. Although it's still early days, Smith noted she is encouraged that all 30 people who have been relocated from the encampments or other temporary shelters have remained in their new surroundings. 'One person housed is super important and we've got to celebrate that,' Smith said. The minister is correct; this is a battle that will be fought one homeless person at a time and every person relocated long-term from the street to something more stable is a huge win. Still, without more effort to define what progress looks like on this file, the NDP government is likely to dash a lot of expectations and lose a lot of public support. Few quibble with the goals of Your Way Home, or the basic construct. The homeless need more than emergency shelter; longer-term housing along with mental health and addictions treatment, education, job training and other social services is more or less the approach everyone wants to take. However, homelessness advocates warned the province it did not have the available housing and social service capacity to undertake its ambitious agenda. Further, the province has been urged to invest significantly more money in supporting community organizations that are already working to support the homeless. Where does that leave Your Way Home? In desperate need of better messaging. This is a file that has suffered the burden of unreasonable expectations almost from the moment it became a signature pledge for the NDP during the 2023 provincial election campaign. You will remember that right out of the gate, Kinew promised his government would 'end chronic homelessness' in Manitoba over the next seven years. Smith noted that this would mean permanently relocating roughly 700 people provincewide from emergency shelters and encampments to social housing. Over two terms. At this point, the government's biggest mistake may have been promising to 'end chronic homelessness' and not just bring it under some form of control. This kind of political hyperbole recalls other foolish and ultimately unachievable claims. A 1999 election promise by NDP leader Gary Doer pledged to 'end' hallway medicine. Over Doer's time as premier, the province did dramatically lower the number of patients warehoused on gurneys in ER hallways. But his government never ended the problem. Tuesdays A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world. The Kinew government may have fallen into the same trap. It's not hard to imagine that, as Your Way Home brings more housing and supports online, it may come close to helping its target of 700 people. It's also quite easy to imagine that even with that accomplishment, the problem of chronic homelessness will have grown much larger. Progress is not about hitting a preconceived number; it's about making the problem smaller. And it's not yet clear the NDP are going to be able to do that. Dan LettColumnist Dan Lett is a columnist for the Free Press, providing opinion and commentary on politics in Winnipeg and beyond. Born and raised in Toronto, Dan joined the Free Press in 1986. Read more about Dan. Dan's columns are built on facts and reactions, but offer his personal views through arguments and analysis. The Free Press' editing team reviews Dan's columns before they are posted online or published in print — part of the our tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
