Despite cleanup, garbage kept piling up at encampments: report

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This article was published 15/01/2025 (291 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A pilot project that provided weekly encampment cleanups collected thousands of litres of garbage last year but city staff say trash just kept piling up.

A new city hall report calls for the end of the pilot, a partnership with multiple social service agencies that ran from June to the end of October. If council approves and agrees not to extend the program, city staff would revert to typical operations, meaning cleanups could be ordered on a casual, as-needed basis.

The program targeted three major encampments along Assiniboine Avenue, Waterfront Drive and Maple Street. It helped improve living conditions for those staying at the sites but only cleaned up the areas temporarily, the report notes.

“Garbage would reaccumulate shortly after it was collected,” wrote Chris Brens, the city’s manager of community development, in the report.

Coun. Janice Lukes, chairwoman of public works, said the pilot was worth conducting, even though it apparently had limited impact.

“It was a really good pilot project to understand that there’s bigger issues at hand. I wouldn’t call it a failure. I think we all learned a lot from it,” said Lukes (Waverley West). “What it did prove was people (accumulate) garbage. You can clean it out one day and the next day it’s back.”

City staff also believe the cleanups did not noticeably reduce fire risks.

While agencies involved in the collections reported a boost to cleanliness, resident complaints to the city about encampment garbage continued, Brens wrote.

Lukes said she supports ending the pilot project. She said Premier Wab Kinew’s recently announced strategy to move hundreds of people from encampments directly into housing offers a more promising way to eliminate the sites and the trash they can produce.

On Tuesday, Kinew said the new $20-million strategy will move 700 people out of tents and into housing.

Mayor Scott Gillingham echoed Lukes’ support for that plan.

“I’m asking council to turn their attention to fully participate in the provincial plan, which is going to ultimately, one-by-one, end encampments and get those spaces cleaned up, so those spaces can be fully available to the public again, whether it’s the parks, the riverbanks (or) transit shelters,” said Gillingham.

The mayor said the city will issue contracts for agencies that provide mobile outreach to homeless people in March. Any successful bidders will be required to align with the provincial plan.

“We have to make sure, it’s really important, that the City of Winnipeg, as full participants and partners in this provincial plan, are funding those agencies that are also pulling in the same direction,” he said.

Exchange District resident Laurie Nealin said encampments have plagued Waterfront Drive near her home for years.

Nealin called the city’s cleanup pilot project a “Band-Aid” solution that had no lasting impact.

“You can clean up an encampment one day and the next day it’s like you did nothing,” she said.

During the pilot, Nealin said some encampment residents clearly tried to help clear away trash but others tore open and scattered the contents of garbage bags prior to weekly collections.

She expects the premier’s strategy will finally address the garbage issue and ensure people in need find stable homes.

“It’s almost like extending (the pilot) was a moot point because major cleanup and elimination of encampments is supposed to happen in conjunction with actually getting people into some sort of … housing. The need (for garbage removal), theoretically, will go away,” she said.

“People cannot realize their potential … (while) living on a riverbank trying to figure out how to survive day to day,” added Nealin.

The report had a due date before the end of October, so it offers only partial data on the pilot project outcomes, Brens noted. It was released publicly on Wednesday, with results up to the end of September (a month before the project ended).

A request to interview city officials was not granted Wednesday and a city spokesman said final figures were not yet available.

Between June and September, crews collected: about 60,972 litres of garbage; 13 mattresses; 11 wooden pallets; three couches; one bed frame; about 60 bike frames and tires; 145 sharps (including needles and pipes) and nine large knives.

Staff devoted about 240 paid hours to conduct 68 cleanups during that period.

During the program, Main Street Project engaged encampment residents to set up cleanups, while the Downtown Community Safety Partnership distributed bags and collected garbage. Siloam Mission led more extensive cleanups, while the city was tasked to provide crews and other resources, as needed.

Main Street Project and Siloam Mission declined comment on the report Wednesday. Downtown Community Safety Partnership and End Homelessness Winnipeg did not respond to interview requests.

The pilot project had an original budget of “up to $170,000.” However, the city only spent $23,800 by the end of September, in part because the cleanups took place at just three sites over a short period, the report notes.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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