‘Being poor is a full-time job’ Overnight shelter offers comfort, safety from stress of living on the street By: Nicole Buffie Posted: 8:40 AM CST Friday, Jan. 24, 2025

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This article was published 24/01/2025 (229 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The clock on the wall reads 9:15 p.m. as Kyle Morrisseau projects his booming voice to announce the house rules to this evening’s shelter guests: no fights or unruly behaviour, no bulky items in the washrooms and if guests leave the building to go for a smoke after 11 p.m., they can’t get back in.

The last point is met with some backlash, albeit light-hearted, from the few dozen people ready to settle in for the night in the basement of Augustine United Church in Osborne Village.

Chris Baron, who has sought shelter on this night, argues they should be cut some slack on the last point.

“We gotta work on that one!” Baron hollers at Morrisseau, who shakes it off while everyone gets comfortable, watches a movie on the TV or faces off over a game of chess in the recreation room.

Some are already fast asleep, while others such as Baron tinker with their personal belongings or chat amongst themselves.

Morrisseau moves to the kitchen to prepare the evening snack, which is pizza tonight, along with bananas and water to wash it down.

The mood is more like that of a sleepaway camp, not a shelter. Some say it’s because the rules at Just a Warm Sleep shelter, run by 1JustCity, are simple: be safe, respectful and responsible.

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Baron, who jokingly refers to himself as the shelter’s No. 1 troublemaker, is surrounded by his personal belongings, which he carries around on the street each day.

He’s allowed to bring everything inside because the policy is to welcome people with everything they have and store it. It means they don’t have to sleep with one eye open to make sure their possessions won’t be stolen in the middle of the night.

Showers, laundry service, individual bathrooms, storage lockers and phone chargers are some of the other amenities at the space that was renovated by 1JustCity in 2021 when it moved its drop-in centre, Oak Table, from the upstairs to the church basement.

The amenities were added to provide people with a warm, dignified experience at a homeless shelter, in a city where its use is rapidly increasing. In its 2022 street census, End Homelessness Winnipeg counted 1,256 homeless people, an increase from 1,127 in 2021.

“We did this renovation not based on any soup kitchen and not based on any shelter that we’d ever seen,” said 1JustCity executive director Glynis Quinn. “We wanted a space where people would see this as their space and the space was welcoming and beautiful.”

Its limited capacity of 30 people per night and its straightforward operation means there’s been little damage to the building or harassment toward staff because people see it as their own space and take care of it, Quinn said.

Grace Bashir, Oak Table’s housing and shelter lead, said clients often tell her they feel safe in the space.

Quinn said because clients like staying there and all the shelter has to offer, they abide by the rules so they can come back.

The single-stall washrooms are cleaned often and laundry service and showers are offered daily, which is especially important for users.

“We’re a First World country and our folks often have to, you know, have Third World conditions because they’re unsheltered,” Quinn said.

When they developed new washrooms, 1JustCity imagined a space where people felt like they could put down their belongings and relax for a few minutes. Organizers knew most of the users would need to take more time in the washroom.

“So we knew we needed a lot of them,” Quinn said.

They also have a “dignity washroom” near the entrance to the shelter so people can stop in to use it instead of begging store owners for access to a washroom or relieving themselves outside.

After installing laundry machines, a repairman told the crew they had put four years of use on the washers in just one year – a testament to the desperate need for the service.

Support workers help clients with paperwork to get their identification, ride with them on the city bus to appointments so they are on time, and celebrate holidays and birthdays.

“Why wouldn’t we? There’s someone who just needs a little help to make it along the way, and if we have the capacity to be able to do that, why would we say no?” Quinn said.

“Being poor is a full-time job. It takes so much effort just to make it through your day and if we can ease that burden even a little bit, we’ll do that.”

Even though he has a case worker with Main Street Project, Baron chooses to sleep at the Osborne Village site because it provides peace of mind.

“There’s gang activity (elsewhere), I feel much safer being here,” he said.

Baron has gone to the shelter on and off since he was stabbed in the throat at a Winnipeg Burger King in April 2024 during a dispute with another patron. Since the incident, Baron prefers to sleep in group settings such as a shelter or encampment, but is choosy about where he goes.

“Would way rather be here,” he said.

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Before Morrisseau began working at Oak Table as a community safety host, he said he had certain ideas about homeless people — which have changed.

“I started seeing that these people are actually like a community of people who come together, take care of each other, even if they don’t have much,” he said.

“These people who have almost nothing will give up whatever they have, even if it’s a shirt on their back to make sure someone else in their situation isn’t suffering as bad. It just kind of made me feel like I was a part of something special.”

Currently, he works days during drop-in hours and evenings during the overnight intake because he admires the community the centre has built.

“Working here helped me hone my gifts in a sense of connecting with people,” he said.

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During the day, Oak Table hosts lunch and offers social services. The drop-in centre serves meals to about 160 guests per day. On Fridays the menu is elevated and tablecloths and centrepieces adorn the tables.

Lately, client Carlos Navas has helped to clean up around the place in the afternoon before the tables are disassembled to make room for sleeping mats.

Navas has been homeless for five weeks. A death in the family, being laid off from his job at Kitchen Craft and burning through his savings to stay housed landed him on the street.

“It was just one thing after another and I don’t think anyone can recover from that many hits at once,” he said.

He looks for work between staying at the shelter, connects to the Wi-Fi at places like The Forks and then comes back in the evening to settle in.

When Navas was welcomed with open arms to Oak Table and Just a Warm Sleep, he began looking at others in his situation with compassion, not judgment.

“When you’re here your mind starts thinking, ‘how did everyone else get here?’ Everybody has a different story,” he said. “I’m just kind of hoping to come out of this a little bit wiser, a little bit stronger and hopefully grab a couple of people with me to the other side.”

The drop-in centre and shelter have built a community in a neighbourhood that’s experienced hardship in recent years.

Osborne Village was one of several neighbourhoods to get extra police officers as part of a retail theft initiative after theft and violence spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Once known for its boutique aesthetic and bar scene, the area has been hit by an increase in crime. Data from the Winnipeg Police Service shows a 44.6 per cent increase in illegal activity in the area from 2022 to 2023.

Quinn said the rise in methamphetamine use changed the neighbourhood but seems to have decreased this winter.

Previously, they had to use naloxone once a week, either on a client or on someone on the street who has overdosed after taking an opioid.

“There’s the foot patrol that’s helped, as well as we do community outings where we check in with people and businesses and let them know what type of services we provide so the community isn’t walking around judging or staring at somebody.

“(Instead), they can advise or help them and let them know where they can go,” Bashir said.

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While the shelter model seems ideal, Quinn and Bashir said they don’t want to recreate it again.

They are optimistic about the province’s new strategy to help the homeless find permanent shelter by moving encampment residents into housing.

Beginning in February, one encampment will be handled at a time, to transfer people into hundreds of new social housing units.

The new strategy is being led by Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud, who was CEO of Siloam Mission from November 2021 until recently being hired as the premier’s senior adviser on ending chronic homelessness.

Blaikie Whitecloud was a fund director of 1JustCity, which was started by the United Church, from 2014 to 2018, at which time she became its executive director.

Quinn and Bashir said any effort to tackle the homeless issue must include the shelter community and homeless people themselves.

They also said the plan needs to involve all three levels of government to ensure it is financially sustainable.

“We know that it doesn’t work making plans for people that they have to fit in to. We need to make plans with people,” Quinn said.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca