Day of free services, entertainment offers heartwarming helping hand to city’s homeless

After three years of homelessness and endless hours walking Winnipeg’s streets, Vineet got a rare chance to put his feet up Friday.

The 49-year-old immigrant from India was one of hundreds of people without homes who received free, hands-on care from volunteers at the Gizhe Waa Ti‑Sii‑Win Service Delivery Expo.

A nurse was checking, cleaning and treating blisters, calluses and toenail issues — small irritants that can quickly become big problems if they get infected, a worry for people exposed to the elements who don’t have regular access to medical care.

“This is something good for me… we walk all day,” said Vineet, who offered only his first name.

In other rooms at the Logan Avenue Salvation Army Weetamah Centre, hair stylists were taking requests and Manitoba Public Insurance staff were helping people obtain ID cards.

Dozens of community support organizations set up tables to meet people, including the elderly and small children with their parents. Dancers entertained guests at a nearby park.

Jackie Hunt, End Homelessness Winnipeg’s senior director of strategy and impact, said organizers expected more than 1,000 people to stop in.

“That’s the reality of what we’re experiencing. You don’t have to look far to see the impact of not having enough housing,” Hunt said.

“We see it everywhere.”

The number of immigrants on Winnipeg’s streets is skyrocketing. End Homelessness Winnipeg reported recently that 13 per cent of the people they counted in a weeklong survey last November had come to Winnipeg from other countries. That demographic made up just two per cent in the organization’s 2022 street census.

Vineet said his story surprises people, particularly others of Indian descent. Before arriving in Winnipeg in 2011, he owned a tech business in India.

He got a job in his new Canadian home working as a supervisor at a construction maintenance company. He had a house and a car until family troubles and illness left him without a roof over his head.

And while the number of immigrants on the street has exploded, he said he continues to feel like an outlier, and it can be lonely.

“I’m the only East Indian here,” he said with a laugh, before his voice turned sombre.

“After a while here, I had no place to go, no choice… I don’t have any friends in my own community, since I moved here.”

Friday’s event was sponsored by the Winnipeg Foundation, but many of the service providers volunteered their time, including Sonymar Rebanal, who owns Ruwis’ Hair, Beauty and Nails.

Rebanal said his favourite parts of the day were the styling discussions he had with people sitting in his chair. He said he’d lost count of the number of close-cut fades he’d done.

“The more people we have to come here, I’ll do the haircut for them,” he said.

As Levi, 31, settled into Rebanal’s chair, he said it felt good, “Especially on a hot day like this.”

Levi, who didn’t offer a surname, said he’s been homeless since July, after moving to Winnipeg from Sandy Bay First Nation.

He wanted to get a haircut because he learned earlier in the day that he’d been accepted into an early childhood education program.

The father of five — his children are still in Sandy Bay — has memories of kind teachers in the First Nation’s classrooms. But many don’t stay in the community located about 165 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

He said he’s working through a healthy-living program for men while he’s here — it “keeps me out of trouble” — and he plans to do whatever he can to get through the next two years of school.

After that, he’ll go home and be a teacher who sticks around and delivers the sort of support and kindness he got in the stylist’s chair Friday.

“I want to give back,” he said. “Just give back to the community, right?”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca