At-risk youth living near Red River doesn't shock shelter

New concerns about young people livingalong the Red River and potentially being exploited there alarmed but didn't totally surprise those who run a local emergency shelter for youth.

CBC News followed five volunteers as they combed the banks of the Red River on Wednesday and found makeshift camps with clothes and items that appear to have belonged to girls.

• Women comb riverbank for clues in missing, murdered women cases

"The things that they've found are very alarming," Shari Loewen, a spokesperson for Macdonald Youth Services, told CBC News on Thursday.

The five women who searched the riverbank on Wednesday saw syringes and used condoms as well as backpacks and girls' clothing.

"There are underage kids here, and those are the ones that are the most vulnerable," Carla Bruyere told CBC News as she picked up items from one makeshift camp.

"Who knows what they're going to get introduced to down here whether it be prostitution, whether it be drugs."

'We need to do more'

Kids who go to Macdonald Youth Services' 24-hour emergency shelter on Mayfair Avenue have talked about being in risky places such as the river and even at home, Loewen said.

"We can't look at just the kid under the riverbank. There's other kids who, you know, are having extreme conflict at home who need our services," she said.

Loewen said the organization reported almost 2,000 overnight stays last year, with some youth only making it to the shelter thanks to its street outreach worker.

"If people know where these kids are located, then she'll go and she'll try to find them and make those connections so that, you know, we can find them a safe place," she said.

Winnipeg police spokesperson Const. Eric Hofley says the force does not have a specific team that patrols the riverbank, and there are no plans to start one.

"Of course, if they came across someone in that situation, certainly they would be spoken with and whatever actions deemed necessary taken," Hofley told reporters Thursday.

But Loewen said helping vulnerable youth avoid risky situations is not solely the responsibility of police, but it's everyone's responsibility.

"We live in Winnipeg, we're a proud community, and I don't feel proud being a Winnipegger seeing the video you just showed me," she said. "We need to do more."