Sense of community in encampment: residents

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This article was published 30/08/2024 (372 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Those living in homeless encampments have a simple message for Winnipeggers who don’t feel they should be allowed to stay there.

“Maybe you should try it. Give it a shot,” Daniel Mateychuk said Thursday afternoon from an encampment near the legislature he’s been staying at for months.

“I actually enjoy it. I’d rather live in a tent than in an apartment.”

Results from a new Probe Research poll found most Winnipeggers don’t believe government is doing enough to fix the problem of homelessness.

Of 480 participants surveyed between Aug. 1 and 9, 47 per cent of Winnipeggers strongly or somewhat disagree that people have a right to stay in an encampment.

Mateychuk, 45, has been living on the streets for the last two years after his Ellice Avenue apartment burned. He said he was added to a rush housing list but has not heard from Manitoba Housing since.

He’s made the encampment behind the Granite Curling Club his home and previously lived in another space across the river for four months.

“I think there’s more community here than you find in an apartment building,” Mateychuk said. “We actually worry for each other and make it home.”

Mateychuk was ill for a few days and said others in the encampment checked in on him multiple times a day to make sure he had food and water. That level of care from his neighbours never happened while he was living in traditional housing.

He said he feels a lot safer living by the river than when he’s stayed in homeless shelters and has built a community with the roughly 20 others that live there. He said he’s had some possessions stolen when he was staying at a shelter.

Dirk Franklin, who has a tent set up higher on the riverbank, said he, too, has had items stolen from a shelter. He said the encampment is a safer experience.

The poll also found most people (68 per cent) agree encampments can’t be eliminated until more affordable housing is built.

Both encampment residents said government and outreach agencies aren’t doing enough to find permanent housing. When agencies drop in, they often don’t bring enough food, water or hygiene products for everyone, Mateychuk said.

Franklin, 43, has lived in the camp for a week or two and said everyone there sticks together “as a family.” He thinks Winnipeggers need to be more understanding.

“(Don’t) be scared. Just come check us out,” said Franklin. “There’s a lot of friendly people here. They may look scary, but they’re friendly.”

jura.mcilraith@freepress.mb.ca