‘Absolutely’ worth going: Smith

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This article was published 01/08/2024 (402 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s housing, addictions and homelessness minister is declaring last week’s trip to Houston a success after the province sent the 26-person delegation to Texas to learn about the renowned “Houston model” approach to homelessness.

But a Winnipeg professor is questioning why it was necessary to send so many people, why Houston’s model is deemed the best, and why Manitoba doesn’t start doing more with the systems and resources it already has at home.

“We have the pieces here, so if it’s not working, then that needs to be solved locally, not going somewhere else,” said Shauna MacKinnon, a professor in the department of urban and inner city studies at the University of Winnipeg.

“It’s just baffling to understand what it is that they think they are going to learn in Houston.”

In a phone interview, Manitoba Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith defended the trip, saying it was “absolutely” worth going.

“We all came to Houston with varying degrees of understanding, we all learned from the Houston model and we focused on the elements that will be beneficial to incorporating into our made-in-Manitoba approach,” Smith said.

The Houston model is often hailed as the gold standard in addressing homelessness after it resulted in housing tens of thousands of vulnerable residents over the past decade and cut the city’s homeless population by more than 60 per cent.

The model focuses on collaboration, with groups including community outreach organizations, the private sector, charities and others, working together to house people who are chronically homeless.

One agency, called the Coalition for the Homeless, serves as the central overseer, tasked with distributing funding and ensuring all groups are sharing data and working toward the same goals — getting people who are homeless into permanent housing, not shelters, with supports.

Smith said it was valuable for representatives and stakeholders from across Manitoba to come together and brainstorm how a similar model could be deployed here. The delegation included the mayors of Thompson and Brandon, representatives from the Manitoba Métis Federation, groups including Main Street Project and End Homelessness Winnipeg, as well as Mark Chipman from True North Sports and Entertainment and Greg Burnett from the Downtown Community Safety Partnership. (Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham made a separate trip to Houston in September.)

While MacKinnon says collaboration is key, she says groups here are already doing great work. She cautions against adopting other aspects of Houston’s model.

For one, the Texas city is too reliant on working with private landlords, she said, while she would like Manitoba to focus on not-for-profit housing that is actually affordable to those who need it. Houston also has higher vacancy rates than cities like Winnipeg, she adds.

And if there’s a need to assign one group to oversee collaboration, McKinnon suggests End Homelessness Winnipeg could serve in this role locally. The non-profit organization’s mandate is to provide leadership on initiatives to end homelessness in Winnipeg.

Smith isn’t ruling something like that out.

“As we come back and start to unpack where organizations’ strengths are, that’s a conversation we’ll be having,” she said. “The Coalition (for the Homeless) in Houston is like the air traffic controller — we need something like that here, too.”

Meanwhile, recent incidents have highlighted divisions in how Winnipeg groups are approaching homelessness.

A letter from Winnipeg’s mayor sent to groups warning them to not interfere when police, fire or paramedics are at encampments went public while the delegation was in Houston. Outreach groups Main Street Project and St. Boniface Street Links have also clashed over differing approaches to helping those in encampments.

Still, those on the trip came away hopeful for the future.

Thompson Mayor Colleen Smook said it was good to meet with those on the front lines in Houston but also to discuss approaches to housing and homelessness with other Manitobans.

“We’ve got to start working more as a group together,” Smook said. Right now, “we’re all in the same book, just on different pages.”

Smook added that she hopes the focus moving forward will be more person-centred.

“We don’t always think of the people on the street first,” she said. “We’re worried about how we’re going to help them but we don’t always include them.”

The province says it paid around $30,000 for its nine provincial representatives to attend the two-day trip, which included Smith, deputy ministers and civil servants, including those working on policy.

— With files from Nicole Buffie.

katrina.clarke@freepress.mb.ca