Church evicts homeless community, pastor frustrated by lack of resources

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This article was published 30/05/2018 (2920 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rev. Brent Neumann was close to tears as he watched the tent community on the grounds of his church slowly come down Wednesday afternoon.

“I just look at them and think, ‘Oh God.’ This hurts. I have to feel my pain knowing I can’t do something more about this. I have to feel my inadequacy when I know everything I can do won’t help,” said the pastor at All Saints Anglican Church at Broadway and Colony Street.

Neumann’s church, located in the shadow of the Legislative Building, has been home to a growing number of homeless campers — four dozen at one point — for the past month. They were asked to leave Wednesday to make way for a wedding scheduled later this week.

On Tuesday night, the church’s congregation held a meeting to vote on whether the encampment would be welcomed back following the wedding. It was ultimately decided the church did not have the resources required to address the needs of the people living on the grounds.

There has already been some damage to church property and some nearby residents have started to complain.

“I know the need is desperate and it’s far bigger than I’ll ever be able to do. The only gift I can offer them is compassion and an open heart. I recognize that, an emotional Neumann said. “I’m doing what I can. I don’t know what else to do.

“I don’t know where they’ll go. Whether we like it or not, we’re all neighbours. This is a societal issue. It’s not just the government. It’s not just the city, or us. It’s on all of us. And simply saying, ‘Get the hell out of here,’ is not a solution.”

As they packed up their few belongings, several people expressed gratitude to the church and its congregation and said they understood why they they had to leave. Some said church staff had treated them better than workers at city homeless shelters.

Kathy, who didn’t want her last name used, said she’s been living on Winnipeg streets off and on for more than 30 years. She said the main thing the tent city gave her was a sense of safety.

“I would have been staying some place that’s violent, or I could have been hurt badly,” she said. “It’s sad, you know, because to me this has been home. Being in the trees, it’s almost been like away from the city. I got used to it.”

Some of the people talked about relocating their community to Memorial Park in an effort to raise awareness about the need for a shelter in West Broadway.

However, three security guards were posted on the park grounds Wednesday to prevent that from happening.

One man who’d finished packing up grabbed a rake and began to clean up some of the cigarette butts and other trash others had left behind. A woman from the congregation noticed him and walked over with tears in her eyes, to thank him and shake his hand.

“I guess we’ve done the best we can,” Neumann said.

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe