Keeping an eye on the Village

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This article was published 27/04/2018 (3087 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For a neighbourhood struggling with perceptions of safety, panhandling, and squatting, there’s a bright — yellow — spot on the horizon.

A new ambassador foot patrol will launch in Osborne Village this month with the mandate of monitoring the area and maintaining safety in the village.

According to Stephanie Meilleur, executive director of the Osborne Village BIZ, the need for a foot patrol, similar to those that operate downtown and in the West End, has been apparent for years.  

“They’re there (for everything) from answering questions about information available in the community, to be someone there that if someone doesn’t feel safe… they can call in the foot patrol program,” Meilleur said.

On April 25, mayor Brian Bowman announced $30,000 from the Civic Initiative Fund towards the program to boost the $27,000 the BIZ scraped together by cutting down overhead and employee expenses.

The money came after the Osborne Village BIZ was initially overlooked for a grant, the same one that is provided to the West End BIZ and Exchange District BIZ.

“We had discussions about how close are they to having a functioning patrol program, and there was obviously advocacy by Coun. Jenny Gerbasi, and through those discussions it looked like this was something that could be implemented,” Bowman said.

“Listening to Stephanie talk about the merits of this, it was persuasive that this would be a good value for tax dollars.”

The funding will allow the patrol — which wears bright yellow shirts — to walk the Village during business hours, at peak bar times, and provide safe escorts to vehicles for residents and patrons between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, throughout summer and the fall. On each shift, three to six patrol members will be on duty.

Meilleur said the benefits of a foot patrol became obvious when members of the Winnipeg Police Service donated time to walk the Village and take stock of the issues in the community.

“It was very clear within the first two weeks of that pilot project, it was well needed,” Meilleur said. “There were multiple arrests, multiple weapons, so on and so forth, seized.

“It was (determined) that people in the village, residents and business owners, just don’t feel safe.”

Brian Koshul, owner of the Upstairs in the Village lounge, said problems with aggressive panhandling, fights, and thefts have become worse over the past two years.  

“For me working nights mostly, I find that my doormen are walking a lot of people to their cars,” Koshul said. “Customers are worried about even walking to the Safeway parking lot or any of the back streets. We have a condition where staff cannot walk to their cars alone either.”

Koshul, who is also a board member with the BIZ, said it was important to have the patrol overlap with the closing time of bars to take some pressure off his staff.

“We find a lot of the time, myself or my security are dealing with stuff that the police can’t get to on the street,” he said. “And it’s just to protect the area. I live here, I work here, I have a business here, so it’s been on my shoulders to try to help everyone, and that’s why this foot patrol is needed.”

“As much as we’re trying to make it safe and protect the individuals walking around, we’re also trying to deal with the issue that made it unsafe, and that’s all the transients being around in the area: why aren’t they taken care of and how can we set them up to not be in the back lane looking through garbage,” he added.

Meilleur said the patrol members, who are employed by the BIZ and have received provincial security training, mental health training, and are working with Winnipeg police and cadets, will be directed to follow city bylaws when dealing with panhandlers and people experiencing homelessness. They’ll also be equipped with information to provide people who may need to attend a shelter or go through detox.

“So they will be working closely with cadets as well as services, street connections, and social level services, to make sure that they are removing those people from the streets if they are causing harm, crime, or we need to get them into safety,” Meilleur said.

The contact number for the patrol will be announced in May.