Homeless plan stokes fears

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/01/2025 (235 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every night before bed, 64-year-old Moira Connolly says her prayers and then shoves a small freezer against the entrance to her tiny St. James apartment.

The Manitoba Housing resident says it’s one of several safety measures she’s been forced to take — such as keeping a naloxone kit and sterile gloves by the front door — as her building deals with increased drug use and crime.

She contacted the Free Press after Premier Wab Kinew unveiled his government’s strategy to end chronic homelessness, which includes a plan to move people from encampments into social housing.

Connolly is worried that could make matters worse at her building.

On the same day, on the other side of the city, an Ojibwa elder who was too scared about gang retaliation to give her name, described a similar situation at her Manitoba Housing block at 444 Kennedy St.

“When I first moved here, it was nice and quiet,” the soft-spoken woman, who’s lived there a decade, said.

“You didn’t have ongoing fires, people defecating in the hallways, peeing and sleeping in the stairwells, needles in stairwells.”

The trouble began nearly four years ago, as younger people who had many problems, including addictions, moved into the building. The 57-year-old grandmother and recovering addict, who’s been sober many years, questioned the province’s “housing first” model in which people are moved into a stable place to make mental health and addictions treatment easier.

“People have to want to get better — you can’t stick them somewhere and hope for the best,” she said.

“They’re causing so much trouble, and they bring their addicted friends here. There’s graffiti all over the place, all this traffic — in and out, in and out. They get their units taken over by these gangs. There’s fighting in the hallways, yelling in the hallway and people threatening other people. There’s elderly people who live in this building and a couple of blind men that I worry about.”

She said the situation is so bad, she doesn’t want her grandchildren to visit because people at the block offer to sell visitors drugs.

Although mental health and other support workers are available, the people have to want to do the work, she said.

Connolly, who lives at 22 Strauss Dr., said a careless minority of tenants in her building cause trouble for the majority, which includes a few who have addictions and mental-health issues but abide by the rules.

She pointed out six suites where occupants openly buy, sell or use street drugs.

She said tenants, including many who are vulnerable and elderly, have been robbed, assaulted and threatened. She saw a woman hit another woman in the head with a bottle in the elevator. She’s seen someone wield a machete at least four times, and a gun out in the open once.

On a tour Friday, she pointed to the back door of the building — which has a child-care centre — that she said is often propped open at night.

“One of the major troublemakers has homeless people in and out of there constantly,” said Connolly, who’s seen and overheard them being sexually exploited for drugs and money.

“There’s syringes in the hallway and on the balcony,” a common area shared by residents.

She shared photos of bloody needles and human excrement left there. Walking through the stairwells, where she’s found people sleeping and doing drugs, there are signs of urine and feces. Connolly stops at the laundry room, where she’s walked in on a couple smoking drugs while having sex.

“I can’t have my grandchildren come over here,” the former Standard Aero worker said.

She collects assistance and has few options other than to complain to anyone who will listen. Manitoba Housing staff members at the site, hired in the past year, have listened to their concerns but don’t appear to have the resources or ability to get at the root of the problem — tenants who can’t or won’t follow rules or obey the law, Connolly said.

Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said 77 Manitoba Housing workers were laid off by the former Progressive Conservative government.

“These concerns were created because the supports weren’t in the building.”

She said her government has “staffed up” and has new housing co-ordinators.

“The safety of the residents in our housing is the No. 1 priority,” she said, pointing to added security cameras and the hiring of more mobile security officers.

Instead of evicting problem tenants, the government is working with them to get the services they need to help change their behaviour, Smith said.

“We can’t be putting people into homelessness,” the minister said.

Moving people from encampments into social housing, which is scheduled to begin next month, will be done strategically, she said.

“Not everyone in encampments have addictions or mental-health issues,” the minister said. They’ll be assessed and triaged for “all kinds of housing” with a navigation centre to help do that work.

“We hear their concerns, which is why we’re putting in wraparound supports…We don’t want to create more issues for folks,” Smith said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca