Mayes tries to address ‘battle’ over homeless outreach turf

Coun. Brian Mayes says the city should “encourage” St. Boniface Street Links and Main Street Project to start a dialogue with the city on how best to co-ordinate their work on the homeless problem.

“It’s just so unfortunate that we’ve got some money (to tackle this), we want to reduce encampments and here we are with this battle over who should be doing the work,” said Mayes.

The St. Vital councillor raised a motion at Thursday’s city council meeting that calls for talks between the municipal government and two key homeless outreach providers, to ensure they help as many vulnerable people as possible and avoid overlapping their services.

In June, the City of Winnipeg awarded Main Street Project a $275,000 contract for mobile outreach services, with a focus on moving people out of encampments and into housing, as part of the provincial Your Way Home strategy. That made MSP the city’s main outreach provider, about six weeks after the agency was accused of re-establishing a homeless encampment near the riverbank in Point Douglas.

End Homelessness Winnipeg later told the Free Press that action was taken to move someone out of one encampment due to a safety concern, when other housing wasn’t available.

Mayes said MSP and Street Links have different approaches but both services are needed. He said co-ordination is key to ensure Main Street isn’t sent by the city to support the same encampments the public reports to Street Links.

“How do we deal (with that)? Are we going to have two separate groups showing up and arguing?” he asked.

Street Links recently said it will continue operating through donations in its initial zone east of the Red River, regardless of not getting the latest city grant, Mayes noted.

“If that’s really the case, we can probably get a lot more bang for our buck through Main Street Project. If they (don’t) have to cover as big of an area, if they (would just cover) west of the Red,” he said.

Marion Willis, the executive director of St. Boniface Street Links, said her organization has a great success rate, housing 22 people in July alone.

Rather than start new discussions, Willis would prefer the city give Street Links jurisdiction to keep handling outreach in its current area.

“The motion that I would look for … (would be one) that protects, by city council resolution, our ability to be the service provider for all of eastern Winnipeg,” she said.

Willis said overlap has already occurred between the two organizations, as both tried to help one individual in a south Winnipeg encampment within the past week.

“There’s a clash all along the Red on our side where people are being told they can stay where they are. Our approach is not going to be to support people to live in encampments. That’s never going to be the case for us,” she said.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said he believes outreach providers are already in dialogue, so calling for further talks would be redundant.

“All of those front-line agencies (have been) at the table and they are at the table on a regular basis,” said Gillingham.

The mayor noted the city still provides some funding to Street Links, stressing he sees the need for both groups.

“There is, unfortunately, so much work to do when it comes to addressing homelessness right now and meeting the needs of unsheltered individuals,” he said.

This year’s city budget included $250,000 for Street Links 24/7 safe space and $59,375 for its mobile outreach service up to the end of June. The budget also included three funding pockets for Main Street Project, including: $86,400 for its Main Stay program; $178,126 for its mobile outreach (up to the end of June) and $275,000 for mobile outreach during the last six months of the year.

Main Street Project did not grant an interview request on Thursday.

In an email, the organization said it is working with all groups that provide outreach service to homeless people.

“We host a bi-weekly outreach meeting, and all outreach teams are invited to participate in those co-ordination meetings and use the Signal app for real-time communication between outreach providers. That will always remain open to all groups doing outreach,” wrote Jamil Mahmood, MSP’s executive director, in the statement.

Mahmood added his organization encourages more unity among groups and governments to address homelessness.

“We are always willing to work with and co-ordinate with all the amazing teams doing such important work for our city,” he wrote.

Council’s executive policy committee will consider the matter in September.

joyanne.pursaga@freepresss.mb.ca

X: @joyanne_pursaga