Mayor’s priorities an encouraging sign

Opinion

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This article was published 05/01/2024 (610 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s a phrase all of us have heard at various times in our lives, whether from parents, friends, spouses or bosses:

“Get your priorities straight!”

Annoying though they might seem during those moments of existential angst when we’re trying to figure out a) who we are, b) what we’re doing and c) why the heck we’re attempting to do it, these four words are forever a useful reminder that accomplishing that which must be done is not a matter of chance or circumstance.

Rather, success in any endeavour requires earnest deliberation, clear vision, thoughtful planning and focused execution.

In setting out his primary goals for 2024, Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham has offered an encouraging indication that his priorities as a civic leader are aligned with what the city he serves most urgently requires.

In a year-end interview with the Free Press last month, the mayor cited addressing homelessness and significantly increasing the city’s stock of affordable housing as top-priority issues for the coming year. While the focus on poverty and access to shelter is welcome, identifying them as front-of-mind considerations is hardly new. Winnipeg’s growing population of unhoused individuals, and the manifold contributing causes of the issues leading to their struggles, have been the subject of political speechmaking at the municipal and provincial levels for at least a couple of decades.

What makes Gillingham’s pronouncement more noteworthy is the moment at which it arrives. For the first time in recent memory, an opportunity seems to exist for multiple levels of government and various social-service providers to actually all be on the same page when it comes to confronting these most urgent of concerns.

The mayor appears to be aware of this fortuitous alignment and, more particularly, the pivotal role civic government can and must play in advancing the dual agenda of tackling homelessness and expanding the supply of affordable housing.

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“There will be a focus of collective effort moving toward developing one shared plan with a continued emphasis on a housing-first approach with wraparound supports,” Gillingham said of his 2024 intentions. “Many of our agencies within the city are co-ordinating and are focused on housing first, but we need to make sure governments and all agencies and even the private sector are sharing the same vision.”

Among the positive steps to date are city council’s effort to set aside land for modular “rapid housing” sites (a council-ordered report on the issue is expected early this year), a major overhaul of zoning regulations aimed at streamlining certain forms of residential development (resulting in access to $122 million from the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund) and the implementation of a $1-million extreme-weather plan to provide shelter for Winnipeg’s most vulnerable during winter months.

The city’s efforts are complemented by recent remarks from Premier Wab Kinew that his NDP government intends to eliminate chronic homelessness within eight years and, to that end, is seeking ways — including, if necessary, expropriation — to turn derelict buildings into affordable housing.

In embracing the province’s proposal, Gillingham noted that the city currently has some 750 derelict properties on its watchlist, and converting some of them “to their highest and best use” is an initiative worth exploring.

A collaborative, cohesive approach — something that was in short supply during the mostly combative Pallister/Stefanson era of intergovernmental relations — will be necessary for any homelessness/housing strategy to succeed. And a necessary first step in this long and ongoing process is for all the invested parties to demonstrate, in no uncertain terms, they have their shared priorities straight.