Winnipeg advocates hope for change after report calls homeless encampments a 'national human rights crisis'

Housing advocates in Winnipeg say they hope a new report calling for a national homeless encampment plan will lead to much-neededchange.

Federal housing advocate Marie-Jose Houle released a report Tuesday that outlines six calls to action to address homelessness across the country, in which shecalls theencampments a "national human rights crisis."

"I couldn't agree with the advocate more," said Marion Willis, executive director of St. Boniface Street Links, a non-profit that works to end homelessness in Winnipeg.

"Certainly it's appropriate for the federal government to get busy and to develop a national strategy to end homelessness right across this country."

The report comes as a growing number of people in Canada are turning to encampments for shelter due to a lack of affordable housing and support, saysHoule's report.

It notes 2022Statistics Canada data thatsays20 to 25 per cent of unhoused people in Canada live in encampments, and calls on the federal government to create a national response plan by Aug. 31 of this year.

The report also calls forgovernments to end forced encampment evictions and ensurepeople living in encampments can access clean water, sanitation, food, health care, and other basic necessities.

Willis said the national plan needs to be "inclusive," and must address the factors that lead to homelessness.

LISTEN |Winnipeg housing advocates react to new homeless encampment report:

Information Radio - MB11:41Canada's federal housing advocate has made an urgent call to action to address homelessness

Host Marcy Markusa speaks with Marion Willis, the executive director of St. Boniface Street Links, and Al Wiebe, an advocate for people experiencing homelessness to get reactions after the release of the advocate's report on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024.

"Right now, where mental health and addictions predominate, where there's just an untold level of violence across this country ... all of these issues are linked," she said in an interview withCBC's Information Radio Tuesday.

"We have way too many people just out there barely surviving."

The report also says governments need to fund or create more permanent housing and address "structural barriers that result in existing emergency shelters not being accessible or appropriate for all people who might choose to use them."

Advocate Al Wiebe, who has experienced homelessness himself, said he's feeling optimistic after the report's release.

"It's really important that we realize that they have human rights just like everybody else," he toldInformation Radio host Marcy Markusa.

Wiebe said people living in encampments face a lot of barriers, including forced evictions and access to safe shelters.

"People are in camps because of fear of shelters, and at the moment we just don't simply don't have enough housing for people to go to," said Wiebe.

"I've been in several shelters and every single time we go in there's an issue of violence. People become erratic."

'Yet one more report'

Shauna MacKinnon, a professor withtheUniversity of Winnipeg's department of urban and inner-city studies,says therecommendations in the report are welcomebutbring "a level of frustration."

"It's yet one more report saying what many, many, many reports are saying," she told CBC News.

"To address the kind of housing that we do need most we need to have housing that's outside of the market, that has supports for people who are needing them."

She said there isn't enough political will among governments to create housing for the most vulnerable. Instead, MacKinnon said governments court voter support by focusingon housing that's affordable to middle-income people.

"People are talking about affordable housing generally ... people are thinking about it relative to their own experience," she said.

To change that, MacKinnon said people need to urge their elected officials to invest in the issue.

"What's going to make the change is if there's a public outcry," she said.

"It's just so outrageous that we see people living in these conditions, and we know why it's happening. We know what we need, and it's just not happening."

While Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham said Tuesday morning he hadn't yet had a chance to read the report, he said creating more housing has always been his priority.

"We need more housing built and more housing made available for individuals to get them off the streets," he said.

"The solution to encampments is housing with wrap-around supports."

In response to the report's call to end forced encampment evictions, Gillingham saidthe city doesn't typically take down camps, but has done so in the past over concerns for the safety of people living in them.

"Whether it's police or certainly our fire paramedic staff ... they have worked with the individuals who are living in the encampments," said Gillingham.

"They try their best always to work not only with the individuals living in the encampments, but the front-line service agencies ... to come at it from a very respectful approach."

Housing advocates react to new homeless encampment report

8 months ago

Duration 2:08

Housing advocates in Winnipeg say they hope a new report calling for a national homeless encampment plan will lead to much-needed change.