Council could boost anti-poverty funds

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This article was published 07/11/2023 (703 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg city council will consider spending millions of dollars to further its poverty-reduction strategy, which would scrap an initial goal to keep it within existing budgets.

A new public service report recommends the city spend $1.4 million in 2024, $1.9 million in 2025, $1.8 million in 2026 and $1.8 million in 2027 on the strategy, which would require council and budget approvals. That would cover multiple grants, new programs and an additional six full-time staff positions.

Anti-poverty advocates have lobbied the city to dedicate funds to implement the strategy since council approved it two years ago, which the current proposal would do.

“You could talk the talk, (but) the money is where you show that you’re walking that walk,” said Desiree McIvor, a spokeswoman for Make Poverty History Manitoba.

McIvor said she hopes the city’s strategy will include some focus on preventing homelessness in the future, rather than simply reacting to it.

“I’m really hoping that we can put that money towards preventing homelessness and food insecurity for our people,” she said, suggesting tenants’-rights education could help prevent low-income renters from being evicted.

The city’s current plan includes dozens of initiatives to be pursued between 2024 and 2027, which would include efforts to: create/support homelessness prevention programs; fast-track affordable housing; enhance job-readiness supports; expand access to clean drinking water and public washrooms; and pursue affordable transit pilot programs for youth aging out of care, as well as at-risk Indigenous women and gender-diverse peoples.

The budget would cover two full-time community services positions dedicated to poverty reduction and a dedicated Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service “community liaison” position to work on fire prevention in encampments. The new hires would also include one new full-time Winnipeg Transit project co-ordinator, one employment-equity position and one universal design planner.

Additional funds would support “non-emergent” encampments.

The city could also increase funding for outreach organizations that serve homeless people. Council spent $550,000 in each of 2022 and 2023 to support Main Street Project, St. Boniface Street Links and Resource Assistance for Youth. The report calls to boost that annual budget to $650,000, starting next year, and begin counting it as part of the poverty-reduction strategy.

The spending would mark a clear shift from how the 10-year strategy was introduced in 2021, when it was designed to fit within the city’s existing budget. Then-mayor Brian Bowman noted housing and health care fall under provincial jurisdiction and stressed the city needed to work within its own purview.

However, council later approved separate funding for outreach programs that serve the homeless, low-income Winnipeg Transit passes and a public washroom for vulnerable people.

It’s not immediately clear if the full funding request will be approved by council.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said he can’t yet commit to supporting it in next year’s budget process.

“The plan does outline a number of different areas where the city can play a role in helping to reduce poverty… and if those require a bit of investment to help the people of Winnipeg, then I’m certainly open to looking at that,” said Gillingham.

The mayor noted the NDP provincial government has identified ending chronic homelessness as a key priority, which indicates senior government funding could be available to help out.

Coun. Sherri Rollins, chairwoman of the property and development committee, said she plans to vote in favour of the plan.

“Money does help here and it is actually a really serious (component),” said Rollins (Fort Rouge — East Fort Garry).

The councillor said creating new staff positions will help get the work done, calling the plan “ambitious.”

“We’re very serious about trying to eradicate poverty,” said Rollins.

The report offers some positive news on poverty rates in Winnipeg, though advocates say the improvement appears to have been short-lived. In 2021, about 8.3 per cent of Winnipeg residents lived in poverty, down from 13 per cent in 2016. During the same period, the portion of children living in poverty fell to one in 10 from one in five.

Unfortunately, McIvor believes many gains have since been eroded, after emergency pandemic benefits ended and the inflation rate soared.

“We were starting to get children out of poverty but when that goes against the inflation, we’re right back to square one,” she said.

If council approves the funding, it will be considered in the 2024 to 2027 multi-year budget process.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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