Community can expect more tent cities

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/06/2018 (2825 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What would you do if a group of homeless people suddenly arrived at your workplace, home residence or place of worship and set up camp for the night… or the month?

It’s a question many of us have contemplated in the wake of the tent city that formed on the front lawn of All Saints Anglican Church in West Broadway. At its peak, over 40 homeless people were on site and the church accommodated them as best it could, such as providing a portable toilet.

Eventually the congregation had to ask tent city residents to leave to make way for a wedding.
It’s certainly not the church’s fault that dozens of homeless people ended up on their lawn. Nor was it the fault of a West End resident who found four homeless people living in his garage after the tent city disbanded. Based on conversations I had with folks at the tent city, they chose to camp together for safety reasons. The opioid drug addiction crisis is becoming so severe that they just don’t feel safe living on the streets in small groups anymore.

The more fundamental question is, why is homelessness getting worse in our community?

Ironically, the answer to that question can be found in the building right across the street from where the tent city used to be: the Manitoba legislature.  

Instead of building 600 new affordable housing units each year (half of them social housing units) as our previous government did, the current government hasn’t built any new social housing units since taking office two years ago.

Every month we are losing social and other low-income housing units due to expiring federal government subsidies, rooming house fires, condo conversions or “reno-victions” when apartment units are renovated to higher rents. We have to build new units just to make up for those we are losing, but instead the government has also cut the Rent Assist program and raised rents in Manitoba Housing blocks.

The results are entirely predictable. Expect more tent cities in the days ahead.