Winnipeg mayor shows desire to help homeless but makes slow progress in 1st year, advocates say

Michelle Wesley gently rubs the shoulder of a woman lying on a couch inside the converted garage that serves as the St. Boniface Street Links outreach team's hub.

The woman, 27, has experienced periods of homelessnesssince aging out of Child and Family Services care, said Wesley, the outreach co-ordinatorfor Street Links the onlyhomeless outreach service on the east side of the Red River in Winnipeg.

"She's experienced some of the worst trauma that I've heard," Wesley said.

Street Linkswhichlacks a shelter space of its own and works out of the garage behind Morberg House, an addictions recovery home has temporarily housed the woman at the La Salle Hotel.

Despite promises from Mayor Scott Gillingham and the City of Winnipeg to work with the organization on finding a permanent space, including an offer of $275,000 in funding in May, the executive director of Street Links says her patience is running out.

"My mood has moved beyond frustration at this point," saidMarion Willis.

When Gillingham was sworn into office on Nov. 1, 2022, one of his first commitments was to gather various agencies and governments around one co-ordinated plan to tackle homelessness.

After 12 months in office, the mayor says he believes he has a partner in the new provincial NDP government of Wab Kinew.

"I think we have this window of opportunity where there seems to be an alignment that's coming together,"Gillingham said in an interview days before hisone-year anniversary in office.

"Once we're able to do that, then we'll really be able to make significant impact on addressing the needs homeless people have."

He hopes to soon meetwithBernadette Smith, the newly appointed minister of housing, addictions and homelessness, to discussnext steps.

Mayor 'genuine' but'a bit naive': advocate

Among Gillingham's tangible accomplishments in the past year, the mayor pointed to the city's commitment to fund four 24/7 safe spaces, doubling the number of spacesfrom two.

Those additional facilities, including the space promised to St. Boniface Street Links, are stillworks in progress, he said.

Gillingham also committed during the campaign to use federal Rapid Housing Initiative funds to build modular homes on six city-owned lots.

His team has identified 13 potential sitesand is in the process of narrowing that down.

The city also recently adopted an extreme weather policy, in order to respond to the kind of conditions that led to a woman freezing to death in a bus shack last year.

Following that, Street Links opened a temporary warming shelter last winter in a city building on St. Mary's Road. The organization hoped to make that their permanent home, but the city issued a request for proposals and putit up for sale.

Despite her frustration, Willis says she supports Gillingham.

"I do believe that Mayor Gillingham is genuine. I think he's a bit naive, but I think that he's genuine in his desire," she said.

Part of the problem, Willis said, is that governments and departments work in silos, and it can be difficult to break out of old ways of operating.

"Ending homelessness is going to require more than one approach," she said.

Suburban support, inner-city issues

University of Manitoba political studies professor Christopher Adams says while Gillingham won with support largely from voters living in the city's outlying neighbourhoods, he has focused his attention largely on issues affecting areas of the inner city.

"I would say that Gillingham has shown himself fairly empathetic to different constituents in our city, not just the suburbs," Adams said.

Gillingham has made downtownredevelopment a priority for city council, including it in the city's strategic priorities action plan and releasinga blueprint to redevelop downtown over the next few decadescalled CentrePlan 2050 this past summer.

"We know safety is a concern, and also some of the social challenges we're seeing in the community," said Kate Fenske, executive director of the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ.

"The mayor's wanting to hear from organizations, different levels of government, grassroots organizations. We're seeing that conversation happening."

Sandra DeLaronde, who is part of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Implementation Committeea Manitoba organizationmade up of survivors, family members, Indigenous organizations and governments encouraged Gillingham to work with groups like the Winnipeg Indigenous Executive Circle on issues that leave homeless people, particularly Indigenous women, vulnerable.

The issue of searching the Prairie Green landfill north of Winnipeg for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran two women believed to have been targeted by an alleged serial killer in Winnipeg homeless sheltershas come up regularly during Gillingham'sfirst year in office.

Last week, hevoted against a motion calling on the provincial and federal governments to fund a search of the site, arguing it is not the city's place because the landfill is in another jurisdiction.

"I've expressed a willingness, absolutely, and a desire to say, 'we're here to assist as called upon.' But it's not for me to compel a senior level of government to make a decision to do something in another jurisdiction," Gillingham said.

DeLaronde says she was "disappointed" by that.

"The value of all Winnipeg citizens should be equal, and by taking the position that it wasn't Winnipeg's jurisdiction, I really have a concern not just for this particular incident, but incidents going forward," she said.

Despite the challenges facing his administration and the city, Gillingham said he's encouraged by the commitment of Winnipeggers to the city's future.

"We owe it to the people who are struggling on our streets right now," he said.

Advocates say mayor's plan to tackle homelessness is lagging

12 months ago

Duration 2:41

Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham was sworn into office a year ago. One of his first commitments was to come up with a plan to tackle homelessness. Advocates say 12 months later, progress has been frustratingly slow.