Homeless camp at All Saints’ to be cleared; congregation to debate its return

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This article was published 28/05/2018 (2852 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What would Jesus do?

The question has been guiding Rev. Brent Neumann and his congregation in the weeks since a sizable tent city popped up on the lawn of their West Broadway parish.

The encampment at All Saints’ Anglican Church, located in the shadow of the Manitoba Legislative Building, has gotten “out of hand,” according to Neumann, with up to 40 people sleeping there each night.

“As Christians, we understand the (biblical) passage of ‘Love thy neighbour.’ Well there you have it. There they are. The question for us is: what is the Christian response to these people who are in need?” Neumann said Monday.

On Wednesday, the tents that have filled the Winnipeg church’s lawn for the past month are to come down and a cleanup at the site will be started, due to an upcoming wedding. “We promised the people who are renting the facility that it would be done. So it needs to happen,” Neumann said.

After the wedding, however, it remains unclear if the homeless camp will be welcomed back. The congregation will hold a meeting Tuesday to make a final decision, Neumann said.

“Where do they go? As a community of Christians, as a group who takes our faith seriously, this is sitting in front of us and we can’t ignore it,” he said.

On Monday, under the hot afternoon sun, at least 10 tents and makeshift shelters dotted the church lawn, most near trees for shade. Standing among the recycling, trash and belongings strewn about, one could look up and see the Golden Boy on his perch atop the legislative building.

A man walking past on the sidewalk surveyed the scene, before turning to his companion and saying, “This is horrible, man. This is horrible.”

Terry Johnsen, 57, has been camping at the church for a couple weeks. He said he understands why the church is asking them to leave prior to a wedding ceremony onsite.

“We want to thank the church for letting us stay. That’s the main thing. I wish it could have been longer, but we also understand that they have their commitments,” Johnsen said, as he worked on a piece of scrap metal.

After spending most of his day scavenging for cans and bottles, and asking construction crews if he can salvage the scrap metal they may be throwing away, Johnsen said it’s been nice to know where he’s going to lay his head at night.

It’s hard to know where everyone will go, Johnsen said, adding – if welcomed back – he’ll only return to the church lawn if he hasn’t found somewhere new to stay.

He described it as a makeshift community that looks out for one another and provides a sense of safety for those living on the streets. Many of them, he said, are unable or uninterested in accessing the city’s crowded homeless shelters.

“(Most people) look at every person who is homeless as one category — that’s a bum. But the thing is, it’s not easy surviving. No fixed income. No roof over my head,” Johnsen said. “We all work very hard, the things we have to do to survive.”

Families Minister Scott Fielding, who is responsible for the province’s housing file, said he’s meeting with Neumann to discuss the situation.

“There has been some discussions already, but what I want to do reaching out to reverend Neumann is ensure that we’re co-ordinating the services as best we can, making sure that people know what options are out there,” Fielding said.

He said the province has built 467 new housing units since the Tories formed government in 2016 — 40 per cent of which are dedicated to social housing. Construction is underway on 149 more units, 30 per cent of which are for social housing, Fielding said.

Neumann said Winnipeg’s social safety nets are already overburdened and – from what he’s seen – the demand is only going up. It’s with that in mind, his congregation will decide on whether to allow the rebuilding of the small tent city.

“We can’t ignore this. If people are in need, what does that mean for us? It’s not comfortable, but it often isn’t when we’re called to go deeper within ourselves for others. We can’t make this go away and we’re not going to try to hide it from anyone,” Neumann said.

— with files from Jessica Botelho-Urbanski

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe