Encampment clearing strains agency beyond its limits: director

Marion Willis picked up her phone Thursday morning sounding both exasperated and exhausted.

“I’m just swamped,” the executive director of St. Boniface Street Links said with a deep sigh.

“I’m frustrated. I don’t even get it anymore. I thought we were all in this together.”

In the past two weeks, Willis said she has housed more than 30 people, reshuffling placements within Street Links’ system to make room for a surge of individuals, many of whom were from encampments that were cleared, leaving them nowhere to go.

The strain, she said, pushed Street Links staff to work late into Wednesday night.

“We were all stuck here because now we’ve got the people from the Mayfair (Place) encampment, because the city has shown up there in the afternoon and put up the (bylaw) sign, and by 4 p.m., they were there with their front-end loader and… taking down the encampment.”

The people living in that camp ended up at Street Links’ doorstep.

“(The city) implements a ban on encampments without any strategy to support it,” Willis said. “And it’s been all on us.”

In an email Thursday, the city’s interim director of communications, David Driedger, said the Mayfair encampment hadn’t been cleared, but the city received confirmation that the camp had become uninhabited, and crews were dispatched to clean up the space.

Since Winnipeg’s encampment ban took effect Nov. 17, he said the city has cleared out nine areas.

“I want to first reinforce that the work… is fully guided by a compassionate approach,” Driedger said. “This work has, to date, not included remediating any sites before ensuring occupants have relocated to alternate shelter or housing.

“Our experience so far has been that some occupants leave encampments proactively when we post the bylaw signs. Others wait for our partners to help them find shelter and/or housing. We give people options, and to date, have not moved to remediate a site until it has been vacated. People camping at the remediated sites were all offered shelter and supports prior to remediation.”

Most of the roughly 30 people Willis said she has housed recently came from encampments — including several from Waterfront Drive and a couple from Mostyn Park, next to the Granite Curling Club.

Police took everyone from the Mayfair encampment to Street Links last week, she said.

According to a statement from the Winnipeg Police Service on Thursday, officers can and do connect people to the Salvation Army, Main Street Project, St. Boniface Street Links and Siloam Mission upon request. Police will also arrange safe rides through Winnipeg’s Downtown Community Safety Partnership to shelters or warming spaces, if preferred.

“In this instance, police were approached in passing by some individuals who indicated they were in need of housing assistance. Police reached out to Street Links and provided them a safe ride,” police said in an emailed statement.

In total, Willis said seven people were displaced from the two encampments that were cleared in the area.

“I almost feel like there’s this attitude in the sector, where it’s just like, ‘Don’t worry about it, Street Links will get it done,” she said.

Willis said she sent a note to Mynarski Coun. Ross Eadie Thursday morning.

In July, Eadie committed to direct more than $60,000 from the Mynarski Ward Community Fund to Street Links after the organization lost out on city funding when the outreach contract was awarded exclusively to Main Street Project.

“It’s desperation out there,” Eadie said.

Willis said she hasn’t received a penny from the city to house anyone related to Winnipeg’s encampment ban. The city has provided $250,000 for the 2025 fiscal year for its 24-7 safe space program.

“The cost to our organization is significant,” she said. “Eight outreach workers at $20-$24 hourly, our vehicles, our gas, our housing network, our work to collect furniture to furnish units, food hampers for every person we house. This is all on us.

And the greatest expense is yet to come.

“We have to case-manage every single household to ensure they don’t return to homelessness,” Willis said. “I’m a little pissed. Did we all forget the plot?”

Main Street Project said Thursday it is doing what it can with the limited housing available, particularly in Mostyn Park — a large encampment site where there have been several fires in recent months.

“Unfortunately, there is not the ability or time to support everyone who needs supports,” the outreach organization said in an email. “We are working to get responses and clarity from the city on the policy and protocol.”

The organization added that when housing options are unavailable, staff help people look for alternatives such as emergency services. But as winter’s cold takes hold, many displaced people are simply moving to other encampments and, potentially, into greater danger.

With light snow drifting down and frigid winds biting at exposed skin, the hazards of Winnipeg’s streets were starkly visible Thursday.

Staff from the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba walked along a path that stretches from Waterfront Drive to Annabella Street, pulling a wagon loaded with provisions — and calling out to people in encampments to let them know warm meals, water and other supplies were available.

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At first, no one approached. A second call went out. And soon more than a half-dozen people appeared, quickly emptying the wagon of its supplies — hot food in foil containers, water, candy, mitts, socks, a jacket and tuques.

“It’s tough,” one of the workers said after the crowd had dispersed.

One man, who loaded three meals into his backpack, was given mitts. He asked for shoes — he had only socks on his feet. He also sought a ride to a nearby shelter, but none was available, and he started the walk away.

Another woman, dressed only in a sweater and pants, received a coat, mitts, a tuque and some food and water.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.