Mayor’s tone-deaf letter only one element of big homeless mess

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/07/2024 (407 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Well-intentioned efforts to tackle homelessness in Winnipeg have officially become an unmitigated disaster.

Consider the events of this past week.

First off, Mayor Scott Gillingham issues a stern letter to outreach agencies to stop them from interfering with police, firefighters and paramedics responding to criminal activity or a medical emergency at homeless encampments. The mayor said representatives of these agencies were interfering and in some instances obstructing police and emergency service staff from entering the encampments.

If that were not bad enough, two of those agencies got involved in a dispute over how best to help the homeless living in an encampment at Glengarry Park in Southwood.

In early July, Main Street Project workers insisted the residents of the camp remain and provided them with water, snacks and blankets. However, a separate group of outreach workers from St Boniface Street Links were, at the same time, trying to pack-up and relocate the encampment residents to shelters.

All these events prompt an overarching question: if the city and social support agencies can’t help each other, what hope do we have that they can help the homeless?

The answer is: not a hope in hell.

Meanwhile, as the pot containing the broad array of civic and community-based services threatens to boil over, the minister responsible for finding a solution — Housing, Addictions and Homeless Minister Bernadette Smith — is in Houston studying that city’s renowned model for dealing with homelessness.

Is that time well spent? There are arguments both for and against taking this trip now.

There is no doubt that the Houston model, dubbed Way Home, is compelling. So much so, that Free Press reporter Katrina Clarke travelled to Houston in March to study the impact it’s had on a city that at one time suffered from America’s most acute homelessness crisis.

The Houston model is anchored on two principal policy pillars: first, the goal is to get people out of encampments and into a massively expanded inventory of social housing; and second, there must be determined collaboration and co-ordination involving all government agencies and community outreach groups.

It’s unlikely the Houston model can be implemented in its entirety in a city in a different country, with a different culture and climate. However, the broad strokes of what Houston has done are viable here.

Particularly, we could be moving ahead to replicate Houston’s emphasis on co-ordinating the efforts of government and community supports. This past week is proof that co-ordination is lacking in Winnipeg.

Gillingham was not wrong to raise concerns about outreach groups working at cross purposes, and obstructing civic services. However, his sternly worded letter seems to ignore two unambiguous realities of the homelessness crisis.

First, the community outreach groups he admonished are doing the heavy lifting on caring for, or relocating, the homeless. And second, there is a high proportion of Indigenous people involved on both sides of this issue and they are inherently skeptical about the motivations of police, firefighters and paramedics.

Rather than rebuking those groups, Gillingham — who travelled to Houston earlier this year — should have convened a face-to-face meeting to find ways of working work in tandem, rather than at odds.

You know, like the Houston model.

The mayor’s tone-deaf letter does not, however, absolve the outreach agencies from the responsibility of working together in a peaceful and productive way.

One of the underlying principles of the Houston model is that no homeless person is forced to do anything, or go anywhere, they don’t want to. Surely, one outreach group promoting re-location can find those people who want to move indoors, while another group can focus on caring for the people who prefer to live rough.

At present, there are dozens of hands reaching out to provide so-called “help” to the homeless, with many operating on different agendas and philosophies. Despite acknowledging this conflict, there has been little formal co-ordination between civic or provincial services and community outreach groups.

All this brings us back to Smith and the NDP government’s pledge from last year’s provincial election to end chronic homelessness within eight years. It was a very lofty promise that has seen only modest progress to date.

In April, the NDP set aside more than $116 million to build 350 additional social housing units and repair 3,000 others. Smith has been quoted as saying that as more housing comes online, the province will provide “wrap-around” health and social services to help residents from returning to the streets.

Although it makes sense to take some time to take parts of the Houston model and tailor them to Winnipeg’s needs, the main elements of what that city has done are well known to lawmakers and community workers. Even if the full scope of a Winnipeg edition of the Houston model is not ready, the NDP government should have done more to co-ordinate civic and community resources.

The NDP made big, bold pledges to end chronic homelessness in last year’s provincial election. As we quickly approach the one-year anniversary of that triumph, it’s time for the NDP to start moving from the aspirational to the practical.

dan.lett@winnipegfreepress.com