Spike in safety concerns doesn’t feel like harm reduction

It’s after dinner when a couple of young boys appear on my porch. I recognize them from the neighbourhood, but they’re not here to ask my kids to come out for a game of basketball. Instead, one asks, “Is it OK to come in for a little bit. There’s a guy out there and he’s scaring us.”

Two weeks ago, when a drug-related fire forced the evacuation of a large Manitoba Housing apartment block, our neighbourhood was unexpectedly left starkly hollowed out with the exodus of so many families who help make it feel like a place to call home.

There’s much stigma around Manitoba Housing, a lot of community opposition when new units are proposed in neighbourhoods around the city. These places are trouble, we think. They’re filled with ne’er-do-wells and drug addicts and people so desperate they’ll do anything to get by.

And perhaps some of that is true. After all, the same block that was recently evacuated has been in the news before, for a hostage-taking, a murder and other incidents.

But Manitoba Housing also provides a vital foothold for families who often go on to absolutely thrive in their residential buildings. The evacuated block is a major stop on a local school’s walking “school bus” route, where a volunteer pauses on their winding circuit to collect more than a dozen elementary-level schoolchildren.

It’s also home to a daycare that shepherds little ones out into the neighbourhood to play in parks and it draws families from all over Winnipeg who stop to drop off their kids and perhaps see that West Broadway really isn’t so bad.

In the wake of the building evacuation, the area was overrun by a contingent of adults — many intoxicated and struggling physically — on just about every nearby street corner.

Literally overnight, I no longer felt safe letting my kids walk to the corner store for a Slurpee. On multiple occasions they left the house only to return promptly and tell me there was someone yelling at them from a nearby stoop or alleyway or that someone grabbed the basketball from their hands and threw it across Sherbrook Street.

I cannot emphasize how abrupt and extreme this change was.

In a previous column, I bemoaned city council’s apparent blindness when it comes to West Broadway, and received a few letters from readers in adjacent neighbourhoods who have had interactions with our councillor on the same topic. Two of them forwarded me identical responses they received from Sherri Rollins, the councillor for the Fort Rouge-Fort Garry ward that includes my neighbourhood, in which she refers to West Broadway as “harm-reduction headquarters.”

Our lived experience has made it clear we are underrepresented at city hall, but to know my neighbourhood has been designated a harm-reduction zone — without consultation, support, communication, balance or resources — has left me fuming for weeks. Suddenly city hall’s vision comes into stark focus, and it doesn’t include my family.

The mayor announced he’ll be fronting the resources to ensure theatre patrons get back to their cars following ballet performances at the Centennial Concert Hall — an announcement met with deserved appreciation.

But here in West Broadway, my son’s piano lesson was interrupted last night when he and his teacher caught sight through a window of someone writhing and moaning on our front lawn.

Where is our safety? Where are the guarantees that we can walk freely in our city? Where is the concern for the welfare of the two boys I took in? It has now all clicked into place for me, thanks to the letters sent by my readers.

It seems city council is intentionally corralling the city’s most desperate into certain neighbourhoods — residents living their lives there be damned.

Just yesterday the Free Press reported on a West Broadway landlord who was ordered to clear an encampment himself or face fines from the city.

It’s no longer a mystery why West Broadway is never mentioned in council-meeting minutes, except in regard to vacant buildings and zoning variances.

It’s clear why Coun. Rollins wasn’t aware of the scope of the drug crisis until her ride-along with Main Street Project.

The reasons our streets are unsafe at all hours of the day and night are also obvious: We have been cordoned off, isolated and designated a harm-reduction headquarters.

We are truly on our own.

rebecca.chambers@freepress.mb.ca