Village in decline

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This article was published 15/10/2017 (2948 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two weeks ago, Dr. Brian McWhirter went to work and found a makeshift campsite in his parking lot.

Wet clothing hung from the exterior walls and a television and toaster were plugged into his power outlets.

‘I’ve had so many insurance claims I can’t even use insurance anymore. The last time my windows were broken I actually had to replace them myself’– Dr. Brian McWhirter

McWhirter, the owner of Stradbrook Chiropractic Centre on Osborne Street, in the heart of Osborne Village, says the scene resembled a shanty town.

“It was quite resourceful,” McWhirter says with a chuckle. “But it doesn’t reflect well on Osborne Village. It just causes pause for people to come here.”

An increase in homelessness and vacant storefronts has been taking over the Osborne Village area for the past few months. A TD bank, now sitting empty facing Osborne Street, has become a popular spot for squatters to spend the night. Augustine United Church, located just steps from the corner of River Avenue and Osborne, also had to tackle the issue over the summer.

A growing number of people were sleeping on the church’s front steps, with their personal effects strewn across the stairs.

Squatters are not the only problem local business owners such as McWhirter have been dealing with of late. McWhirter says he also deals with graffiti every week – sometimes daily.

In the spring, his front window was tagged with a mixture of acid and white shoe polish.

The writing is now permanently burned into the glass.

McWhirter says the climbing expenses from vandalism are difficult for a small business owner to keep up with.

“I’ve had so many insurance claims I can’t even use insurance anymore,” McWhirter says. “The last time my windows were broken I actually had to replace them myself.”

The TD bank sits beside Stradbrook Chiropractic Centre. With a lone ATM available inside, some area homeless have been taking shelter in the space. The interior is now littered with discarded cigarette butts and garbage.

McWhirter says some of his patients feel uncomfortable going into the bank, especially when people are loitering inside. He believes Osborne Village squatters will continue to camp there and other places in the neighbourhood as long as they can get away with it.

“Positioning themselves to sleep in that cash machine didn’t just happen overnight,” McWhirter says. “They panhandled here for months, probably even years, and bylaws weren’t enforced. I don’t believe the police did as good a job as we would expect them to, and they have their reasons, but I don’t know why.”

Oak Table has been serving meals to the area’s homeless out of Augustine United Church for 36 years. What began as a small organization has had to expand to meet the growing demand in the area, which the group believes has been steadily increasing over the years.

“Our numbers have increased so much,” says Glynis Quinn the organization’s executive director. “A big day used to be 30 people, then that turned to 50, then 80, then 100. This summer we had 212 come in for one of our days.”

Quinn says Oak Table doesn’t just provide food for Osborne Village’s homeless. It also feeds seniors living on pensions, those with disabilities — such as mental illness — and people who can only scrape up enough to pay their rent.

Quinn says Osborne Village is not the same vibrant place as when she started working at Augustine United 17 years ago, but believes the issues are not native to the area.

“Every time there’s a bit of a crisis in a neighbourhood people think it’s attached to something,” Quinn says. “Sometimes it isn’t attached to anything, it’s just the neighbourhood going through a transition.”

Coun. Jenny Gerbasi (Fort Rouge – East Fort Garry), says Osborne Village is a known route for Canadian transients, but the squatting issue — such as at the vacant bank — is a recent development. She says dealing with squatters near businesses or inside abandoned buildings is the responsibility of property owners, and should not negatively reflect on the neighbourhood.

“If buildings are unoccupied, at some point people will begin to question how healthy the Village is,” Gerbasi says. “There are some empty storefronts, but there’s also new businesses coming in. It’s thriving in a lot of ways, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges.”

Gerbasi believes the issue of squatters in the Village reflects broader, underlying social problems — ones other Winnipeg areas also face.

“I think some of the issues we’ve had in Winnipeg this summer have to do with increasing problems with addiction and mental health,” Gerbasi says. “And all of those things come together. Sometimes they get worse, and it seems like we’re having a more difficult year with those issues.”

Stephanie Meilleur of the Osborne Village Business Improvement Zone (BIZ) says the Village has always been a target for squatters, but this year has been especially difficult and caught a lot of people in the area off guard.

“Osborne has always been a hot spot, primarily because of the population,” Meilleur says.

“Panhandlers and buskers have always been a part of the community. I think because it’s become so welcoming to that culture squatters continue coming back.”

Meilleur also hopes the reopening of vacant shops will help revitalize the area. Aside from TD, the former American Apparel, Black Rabbit Bistro Lounge and Desart spaces have been sitting empty for months.

“There are a couple individuals who own property and aren’t willing to drop their rent prices, so that’s why we do lose a lot of young entrepreneurs,” Meilleur says. “Some of the rent is just atrociously high. We’ve tried to work with property owners, but there’s only so much we can do.”

Meilleur says the BIZ is also looking at introducing an entrepreneurial startup grant. It would help new area businesses pay rent for the first few months after opening. She says it has not been passed yet, but it is in their 2018 budget.

While Meilleur says the BIZ did not anticipate the increase in squatting this year, they are already preparing to tackle the problem again next summer. Methods will include new lighting and continuing a current streetscaping initiative. Meilleur says they are also looking at the possibility of creating an Osborne Village foot patrol, but it is dependent on funding and grants.

The area still bustles despite these issues. Gary Flater, a local busker, spends most weekends strumming his guitar in the downtown area. He says he only recently started spending more time in the Village, but it is now where he comes to clear his mind.

“It’s very cosmopolitan here,” Flater says. “You get people from different cultures and countries in one place, and I don’t think that has changed over the years. There’s still a real community.”

After half an hour of playing in front of the Osborne Village liquor mart, four people stop to chat with Flater. Others sit and listen to his cover of a Pink Floyd song or toss a coin into his open guitar case as they walk by.

“The fact I can actually do this here and get a good response says something positive about Osborne Village,” Flater says. “Here people stop and listen. They stop and talk for a while. There are other places in the city where they don’t. The culture is still alive.”

kjames37@Academic.RRC.ca