Homelessness and St. Vital

St. Vital

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/11/2023 (999 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When I first ran for city council over a decade ago, I don’t remember anyone in St. Vital ward raising the issue of homelessness with me (at city hall we sometimes use the term “people living without shelter” and I will both terms in this column). However, by the 2022 city elections, the issue came up repeatedly when I was door-knocking in St. Vital.

I support Mayor Scott Gillingham’s efforts on this file, and it appears the mayor and newly elected Premier Wab Kinew are both committed to taking action. There is one way so far in which St. Vital has played a role.

In the winter of 2022-23, the old St. Vital civic building at 604 St. Mary’s Rd. was used as an emergency shelter by St. Boniface Street Links (SBSL). This group, led by Marion Willis, is doing a great deal with the unsheltered population on the east side of the Red River. I got no complaints last winter about this project .

The 604 St. Mary’s site (a late 1950s building, not the historic 1914 fire hall) was declared surplus by the city in 2019. The province used the site as a COVID centre before departing in 2022. The city is now accepting proposals for the site, and its future use will have to include social benefit for St. Vital, a provision I insisted upon after similar wording was proposed for the fomer St. Boniface city hall.

I learned in early October that SBSL will be offered use of the site again for the coming winter, beginning on Dec 1. I will say three things:

1. Though Marion Willis can be very direct and plain-spoken, I have come to like her and to respect SBSL work;

2. I support SBSL using the site again in 2023-24 and am pressing city staff to let Marion in as soon as possible, as she has requested, rather than waiting until Dec. 1, and;

3. I will seriously consider a proposal from SBSL for long-term use of the site as part of the public solicitation for proposals.

I do not claim to have all the answers on homelessness, but I do think there is a role for St. Vital to play in dealing with the crisis.