Two homeless encampments cleared on first day of city enforcement

The City of Winnipeg cleared two encampments Monday, the same day new rules on locations took effect.

City crews cleared out two homeless encampments on Monday as new rules restricting encampment locations took effect.

Speaking to the mayor and his inner circle on Tuesday, Greg MacPherson, the city’s acting manager of community development, said crews cleared encampments—one on Pacific Avenue and another at Omand’s Creek.

“Yesterday was a good opportunity to test how it would work. I think it went very, very well,” he said, referring to the new city policy around homeless encampments.

As of Monday, encampments cannot be set up near playgrounds, pools, schools, daycares, care homes, transit shelters, bridges, rail crossings and other sites deemed unsafe.

“If we’re going into an encampment, we’re trying to approach that with compassion,” MacPherson said, noting residents of these encampments are being offered housing via Main Street Project.

He said during Monday’s enforcement, three people accepted housing. The city notes it is relying on provincial partners and service providers—like Main Street Project—to handle the housing placements.

In a statement to CTV News, the city noted crews are prioritizing enforcement based on health and safety risks, proximity to sensitive public spaces, and degree of community impact.

“Part of the enforcement process is to make sure these sites remain vacated, and any new or returning people are made aware that the site is prohibited,” the statement reads.

Councillor, advocates call for ‘managed triage encampment sites’

With this enforcement, Coun. Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre) called on the executive policy committee to consider what she described as a “managed triage encampment site.”

“That would be a designated area of land where the city would provide some supports like garbage pickup, on-site washrooms so that we wouldn’t see some of the issues we are having around uncleanliness inside our parks,” she said.

“There would be an organization on-site triaging people into housing and addiction supports and really holding their hand, which is what is required to get them housed.”

She said residents would only stay in these sites for a very short time until housing can be provided.

Gilroy’s call was echoed by Marion Willis, executive director of St. Boniface Street Links. Willis said the city needs to act quickly.

“Mark my words, if we don’t come up with some way to fast-track people into housing, you are going to have more fires this winter as people look for vacant and boarded-up buildings to move into,” Willis said.

“They will set fires to keep warm. You are going to see people in ATM vestibules. You are going to see them in parkades. You are going to have a problem that maybe you don’t foresee at this point, but I know how this is going to play out.”

She warned simply moving people out of encampments will push them further into the fringe and even deeper into a state of survival mode.

Willis said a managed triage encampment site would need to be a joint effort by the city, province and service providers.

Despite their calls, no decision was made by the executive policy committee on the matter.