Residents demand action on homeless camp after senior assaulted By: Nicole Buffie Posted: 6:44 PM CDT Friday, Jul. 12, 2024

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This article was published 12/07/2024 (772 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The assault of a senior by a man from a homeless encampment on Assiniboine Avenue has sparked outrage and calls to to make the downtown area safer.

Eric, who didn’t want his last name used, said he and a group of fellow seniors were walking down the street on their way to the McFadyen Park pickleball court Thursday morning when someone from the camp approached them. The man roughly shoved Eric and yelled profanities, before continuing on down the street.

“It was just an unfortunate situation,” said Eric, who has lived on the block for two years.

The encampment, tucked at the back of McFadyen Park along the Assiniboine River, has grown to about a dozen tents; fire pits, clothes lines and lawn chairs mark the camp while people steadily stream in and out, hauling items such as bicycles and garbage bags.

Assiniboine Avenue resident Theresa Hunter said the Thursday incident was the last straw.

“When one of my seniors coming out to play pickleball gets assaulted by somebody from this camp, that’s enough,” she said.

Hunter, who moved to the neighbourhood from St. Vital six years ago, said the camp is a safety hazard to local residents and she takes issue with the city’s non-emergent support for such camps.

Hunter has taken it upon herself to pick up used syringes and garbage in the park, but she’s tired of waiting on the city’s response.

Hunter said the process lacks teeth in dealing with camps appropriately and ensuring unsheltered people have their long-term needs met.

“There are people out there that need supports and they’re just not getting it from the city,” she said. “What the city’s encampment policy does is they run in with water and socks and granola bars and they say ‘it’s OK, push your tent a little further into the bushes and you’ll be fine.’… They need a lot more than granola bars and water that’ll get them through the night.”

The city responds to 311 calls about encampments by way of outreach service providers Main Street Project, Resource Assistance for Youth or St. Boniface Street Links. Members visit the sites and provide supports such as transportation, transfers to emergency shelters, warm clothing, blankets, water, coffee, food and harm-reduction supplies.

“Outreach service providers will not ask residents to leave an encampment on public property/Crown land or within a transit shelter. Their role is to provide immediate support for individuals in the moment. Unless an immediate life-safety risk is identified, the city will also not vacate an encampment or transit shelter,” the city’s document states.

The 311 line received 230 reports related to encampments from January to June, all of which were referred to outreach groups, said city spokesperson Kalen Qually.

Since the McFadyen Park camp sprung up, petty theft from cars and yards has become an issue, said Hunter.

She won’t go to the park alone because she’s seen campers wave machetes and she’s spotted knives on the ground.

She’s disturbed by the presence of weapons, noting the park is used by children from a nearby daycare.

The Winnipeg Police Service’s 2023 statistical report says property crime in the Broadway-Assiniboine neighbourhood has decreased overall by 16 per cent, but violent crime has increased by 35 per cent.

At a city-run wading pool at the park, two workers said the camp dwellers normally keep to themselves and only approach them to ask to use the public washroom.

“They’re fine, I don’t worry about it really,” said one attendant, who declined to give her name.

Hunter’s ideal for the camp is to not only move it out of the park, but that its residents receive permanent housing.

“We just need to do better to elevate them to a better existence, because living in a tent — it’s fine for now, but what’s going to happen in the winter when it’s minus 40?” she said, adding she supports Mayor Scott Gillingham’s housing-first approach and interest in the Houston model of providing immediate, permanent housing to precariously housed people.

Eric called the homeless strategy a “vicious circle,” because while immediate support is available, wraparound supports are missing and homelessness is perpetuated.

“I wouldn’t even treat an animal the way the city is treating these people,” he said.

Qually said city staff will only intervene if there is an immediate risk to public or personal safety as a result of activity in an encampment.

“Structures are removed only when activities or living conditions are dangerous. In such circumstances, our partner agencies will explain the risks to residents, and where needed, provide information about risk reduction. If there is a pattern of persistent behaviour that is a risk to life and safety, we may direct residents to vacate the site; our partner agencies will continue to work with the residents to identify necessary supports,” Qually said in an email.

“I wouldn’t even treat an animal the way the city is treating these people.”–Eric, victim of assault

Hunter would like to establish a community garden in the park one day or engage with the daycare to teach children to plant flowers, but that’s not possible as long as the camp remains.

“This is what we want for our community. Not all of this,” she said, gesturing to the camp from a nearby bench.

“As Winnipeggers collectively, I think we have to support (housing) initiatives, but I think we also have to find the balance in making sure that residents and Winnipeggers and visitors feel safe in our community.”

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca