New to Winnipeg, longtime homeless man calls for tent city

Jonah says he would have gladly pitched his tent in a designated homeless camp after arriving in Winnipeg about a week ago.

But there is no such site in the city, so the 49-year-old, who arrived by bus from Toronto, set up his tent behind the south side of the outdoor rink at the Broadway Community Centre on Young Street.

“Then it rained for two days straight,” he said as he pulled his damp blanket out of his tent, which he had moved to higher ground, on the south side of the nearby community gardens.

Jonah, who declined to give his last name, learned on Wednesday the City of Winnipeg doesn’t want him camping near a playground. Tents will be banned in such places once new rules take effect next month.

“(Winnipeg) should take a page from Vancouver or Halifax,” says Jonah, referencing cities that have allowed designated encampment spaces. Vancouver’s only sanctioned site, however, closed late last year.

“If they made a place, and they had an ambulance parked there, attendants, security on site monitoring who comes in and out, and with supports — perimetered — it would be safe. But they don’t do that here… There could be a place where there are supports right in the camp, that runs 24 hours a day.”

Jonah chose the West Broadway location because it’s central. Having been in Winnipeg in the past, he knows where to go for a warm meal.

“If they made a place, and they had an ambulance parked there, attendants, security on site monitoring who comes in and out, and with supports – perimetered – it would be safe. But they don’t do that here…”

“I have a loop I do each day,” he said, pointing to Agape Table on Furby Street, where he gets breakfast each morning, a nearby college where he can charge his electronics and watch a bit of YouTube before lunch at Oak Table in Osborne Village.

“Thank goodness for places like that.”

He says he got his tent from someone at a church farther down Osborne Street, where he was fed and given a few dollars on his first night in Winnipeg.

“Every day is about survival,” he said. “How do you get ahead? How do I?”

Jonah says he spent nine and a half years living on the streets of Toronto, but came west because it became too unsafe.

“I don’t think I ever did anything wrong,” he says, reflecting on how he ended up on the street nearly a decade ago. “I went to school, I didn’t commit crimes, I don’t do drugs. I’m not addicted to anything. I smoke a little weed… I paint houses.”

Jonah believes society has abandoned its most marginalized citizens and says the rise of artificial intelligence is eroding the middle class, the group he feels still cares about the homeless.

He avoids shelters, which he says are often overrun with drug use and people suffering trauma.

“It’s hard to watch ambulances coming by every five minutes,” he said. “It’s hard seeing people you used to know, who were once doing well in life, ending up like that.”

“I have feelings. And that hurts me.”

Jonah hopes to find a job in Winnipeg. If not, he says, he’ll try Edmonton next. In the meantime, if he’s forced to move again, he plans to find a spot down by the river.

“Tomorrow’s problem,” he said.

On Wednesday afternoon, with the sun finally breaking through, Jonah took the chance to spread his damp blanket across an overturned hockey net. Once that was done, he made his way to a nearby dumpster to search for his next meal.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca