Kinew’s hand-picked senior adviser on strategy to end homelessness resigns

Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud, who was appointed to lead the province’s high-profile strategy to end chronic homelessness, has resigned only 10 months into the job.

Blaikie Whitecloud confirmed Thursday that she’s given notice and will leave her position as Premier Wab Kinew’s senior adviser on the Your Way Home strategy at the end of November.

She’s accepted a position as president and CEO of the Collaborative Housing Alliance Real Estate Investment Trust.

Earlier this month, True North Sports & Entertainment — the company that owns the Winnipeg Jets and Canada Life Centre — announced it was investing $5 million in the trust, joining Paul and Anne Mahon, who are contributing $2 million through the Mahon Family Foundation.

The trust, set up by the Business Council of Manitoba, received $10 million in provincial seed funding last fall and aims to unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in new affordable housing by leveraging private, public and philanthropic funds.

It has not yet announced any specific projects, but commitments are being formalized for two developments that would provide 48 transitional housing units, including one new build and the other an existing building, Paul Mahon said earlier.

Kinew appointed Blaikie Whitecloud last January at a starting salary of $177,745 to lead the NDP government’s effort to end chronic homelessness by 2031, moving people from encampments to stable housing with needed social supports.

Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith issued a statement late Thursday saying Blaikie Whitecloud is “moving on to help build more housing in Manitoba,” but did not elaborate.

“We are grateful for Tessa’s dedication to ending chronic homelessness and look forward to continuing to work alongside her as she takes on this new role focused on expanding Manitoba’s housing supply,” Smith said.

Blaikie Whitecloud said in a prepared statement it’s been “amazing to work with Minister Smith to get processes of collaboration with the sector and the province in place to house 100 folks out of encampments. She has a bold vision and has taken immediate action to bring housing units online to support people moving up the housing ladder.”

Blaikie Whitecloud said that what she learned from Smith she’ll apply in her new role “building and revitalizing housing across the continuum to ensure deeply affordable units, with the right supports in place, are available for those in need.”

It’s been “amazing to work with Minister Smith to get processes of collaboration with the sector and the province in place to house 100 folks out of encampments.”

Blaikie Whitecloud had worked in the non-profit sector serving homeless people since 2013 as the executive director of 1JustCity and, before taking on her current role, as the chief executive officer of Siloam Mission.

Your Way Home is focused on creating a new stream in the Manitoba Housing system that dedicates 20 per cent, or 2,500 residential units, to the estimated 700 people who were living in about 100 encampments two months ago.

Blaikie Whitecloud delivered the keynote address at an event last Saturday hosted by the Jubilee Fund, a charitable ethical investment group.

She told attendees that 89 people have been successfully housed through the strategy, and there are plans to move 70 more into housing in the coming weeks.

Smith said Thursday that thanks to Blaikie Whitecloud’s efforts, 100 people who were living in encampments now have homes.

“Tessa’s leadership is instrumental in bringing partners together and setting our strategy on the right path. We are in a strong position to keep building on that progress,” Smith said.

At the plan’s January announcement, Kinew said the province would work with the City of Winnipeg to move homeless people into housing one encampment at a time within a 30-day window.

“Tessa’s leadership is instrumental in bringing partners together and setting our strategy on the right path.”

He added that 300 new social housing units had been purchased and would be supported by non-profit organizations.

Kinew said the province would be the sole lead and co-ordinator of the strategy, streamlining the efforts of non-profit organizations, Indigenous nations and municipalities.

In the months since, the plan has been criticized for not moving quickly enough.

A Probe Research poll conducted in September for the Free Press revealed that a growing number of Winnipeggers are losing faith in the province, the city and front-line organizations to deal with the homelessness problem.

On Wednesday, the city announced its policy and protocol for removing encampments from a number of public spaces, such as playgrounds and schools.

Council voted in September to prohibit encampments from transit shelters, playgrounds, pools, spray pads, recreation facilities, schools, daycares, adult care facilities, medians, traffic islands, bridges, docks, piers, rail lines and rail crossings, as well as wherever the camps obstruct traffic or pose a “life safety issue.”

Progressive Conservative housing, addictions and homelessness critic Jeff Bereza said he was “very surprised” that Blaikie Whitecloud — who was touted as the province’s “homelessness czar” — is leaving the position after just 10 months.

“The premier and Minister Smith, in their announcements, touted her as somebody that was very well known and that could handle this,” he said Thursday.

“We’ve seen the numbers – that they’re not dropping very quickly.”

“We’ve seen the numbers — that they’re not dropping very quickly. I walk or go across the Osborne Street Bridge every day and by the Granite Curling Club — the amount of encampments, it just continues to grow at a rapid pace.”

Marion Willis, the founder and executive director of St. Boniface Street Links, an agency that works to find housing for people in encampments, said Blaikie Whitecloud’s job with the province would be “incredibly difficult” for someone who ran a street-serving organization and was “very connected to the population that’s served by that organization” to switch to a political or bureaucratic role.

“”You’re looking through an entirely different lens and it’s more of a bureaucratic lens,” said Willis, who described Blaikie Whitecloud as “very bright, very good at her job at Siloam Mission and very engaged as a leader in the sector.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca