‘Heavy heart’: Women’s centre fundraising for fence to combat vandalism

WINNIPEG’S longest-running inner- city women’s resource centre is fundraising to put up a fence after spending tens of thousands on vandalism repairs.

Over the weekend, the North End Women’s Centre had a window smashed, stairs broken and air conditioners damaged, leaving people who seek support through its programming to do so in the heat Monday, its executive director said.

It was a turning point for the centre, which had been considering a fence for a while but was concerned about creating a barrier to the low-barrier Selkirk Avenue agency, which opened in 1985.

The decision comes with a “heavy heart,” Cynthia Drebot said, but she noted the centre has spent $30,000 repairing vandalism and property damage over the past two years.

“We try to be open and accessible to community, but we’re kind of at a point where it’s becoming hard to do what we’re doing for the community we serve every day when we can’t protect our space in the evening and weekends,” she said Monday.

Last year, a fire set in a nearby garbage can spread to the centre, causing extensive damage to the building’s entrance.

In 2020, a fire started by a woman who told staff she set it to stay warm destroyed stock for the Up Shoppe, a thrift store the centre runs to employ and support women in need.

In the past few months, the centre has had external air conditioners dismantled for parts and pieces, and fire escape and planter boxes have been stripped of wood during cooler nights.

This past weekend, a garden memorial to remember loved ones lost to drug overdose was also smashed.

Drebot said the centre would never have put up a fence five years ago, but the rising number of incidents takes time away from staff, who are forced to juggle it with the work they do to support the 120 people who walk through the doors daily.

“People resort to things when we’re in situations where we have so many people that are unsheltered and unhoused right now — and I’m not saying the people that (vandalized the centre) are — but vandalism and theft happens when people are in situations where they need things,” she said.

The fence could cost as much as $15,000, Drebot said, and the North End Women’s Centre is taking donations at newcentre.org/donate. The fence is set to go up Friday.

Drebot said staff are looking at the fence as a way to protect the women who use the space’s drop-in resources, counselling programs, transitional housing and other supports, rather than a method to keep people out.

“We’ve changed our perspective on it. The barrier and the fence is so we can protect who we are here to support on an everyday basis, and that will allow us to keep doing what we’re doing really well and to have the needs of the women and folks that come into our centre have their needs met and not jeopardize that,” she said.

The North End Women’s Centre isn’t the first non-profit to feel the impact of growing crime in the inner city.

In October, D’Arcy’s ARC Thrift Store on Main Street shut its doors after 16 years, citing a spike in shoplifting as a factor. The second-hand store on the boundary of north Point Douglas and the North End raised money for D’Arcy’s Animal Rescue Centre, which relies on donations.

North End BIZ chairman Keith Horn said businesses and charities alike in the area are resorting to expensive fencing and other security.

“No one’s safe it seems, if you’re a business or a non-profit, they don’t seem to care,” he said.

It’s also created a rise in businesses and resource centres implementing a “locked-door policy,” where doors stay locked all day, and customers or visitors are vetted before being allowed in, he said.

Even churches have taken on extra security measures in hopes of mitigating crime — the Our Lady of Lourdes church downtown told the Free Press in October it had elected to put up an eight-foot fence with barbed wire after receiving a grant from the Winnipeg Foundation to improve its security.

Stephanie Casar, a parish council member at the Catholic church, said the fence, along with security cameras, have slightly improved the number of incidents happening on the grounds, but people would come inside while the fence is open during church events or services. Garbage was being dumped directly outside of the fence.

“Everybody kind of has to be on the lookout for each other when you come in, just because you don’t want somebody just popping up and not knowing (with) unpredictable behaviour,” she said.

She knows the church is not alone in its struggle.

“Everybody’s dealing with it downtown,” she said. “I don’t know what all the answers are.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca