Winnipeg | 2026 Civic election

[Sheepish]

The issue is not restricted to the panhandling in the intersections. Sadly that was just the beginning. Its the dozens of smashed and boarded up Windows along Portage ave and Main st. Its the bus shelter encampments. Its people sleeping on the sidewalks. Its the garbage everywhere. Its the public intoxication and defecation. It is the assaults, vandalism and petty crime. To be clear...these people on the street are at great risk, and it is a very sad state for them. As a society, how did we get to this point? As a city...we are also at great risk. Our new mayor (the current one has checked out) must make it a priority to bring the Province, Feds and social agencies together to address this. Fines are not solutions. Jail is not a solution. But living in bus shelters and sidewalks and living hand to mouth is also not a solution. Safe housing; social services; support the next generations coming up. Be bold.
In the mean time...pick up the damned garbage on the streets and blvds. Its a start!

[esquire]

^ There is an incredible amount of disorder, particularly in the downtown and inner city areas, which benefits no one. The sheer amount of plywood you can see all over the place is but one example.

It is probably time to have an honest conversation about the situation if there is going to be any hope of improving it.

[GreyGarden]

I think I've seen many proposals and ideas put forward to address the issue. I don't think it is a matter of not having honest conversations - its that Winnipeggers and the Province are not willing and/or prepared to commit the money needed to actually deal with the issue - be it affordable housing, addiction treatment, a subsidy for broken windows, etc. People like to complain, fair enough - so do I, but I don't think there is much of an appetite to actually deal with things. We are a notoriously cheap people. Unlike other Canadian cities, we have been late to the punch and there are very few medium to high earners living in the inner city. As a result, the 'social disorder' is much more visible compared to what I've seen in other inner cities.

[drew]

The problem is that there is currently no where to place people that currently reside within bus shelters. This is because:

1) their addictions disqualify them from accessing most of the downtown shelters

2) their addictions make them unsuitable to place in available housing, especially given the choice between an addict and say a impoverished family.

3) there isn't (AFAIK) a facility or centre that people can be forced into to treat their addictions. You can throw them in the remand centre or jail, but that isn't addiction treatment. Even if treatment was made available - I suspect only a small fraction of people living on the street would be expected to voluntarily enter treatment, and see it thru.

Given these challenges - it's no wonder why this is a very tough problem to tackle.

I do agree that at the very least, constant clean-up and encouraging (forcing?) people to move along is needed.

The bus shelter near Sherbrook on the southside of Portage is filled daily with people smoking crack pipes and shooting up. This is RIGHT in front of a youth outreach centre.

It's completely unacceptable - the safety of kids should always trump the consideration of adult addicts.

[thurmas]

Investments in housing for homeless is actually not that expensive and would lead to remarkable improvements but those types of investments in social housing really haven't been done since the 70s and 80s. The real estate bubble of the past few years has only inflamed the problem exponentially.

[drew]

^ even if housing was available for everyone - housing a meth addict living on the street is never going to have a good outcome. Except the renovation company that gets hired to clean up the mess for the next tenant.

[thurmas]

Originally Posted by drew

^ even if housing was available for everyone - housing a meth addict living on the street is never going to have a good outcome. Except the renovation company that gets hired to clean up the mess for the next tenant.

Not true Finland provides housing before they even start counciling and rehab and for 80% of them it leads to improved outcomes

[drew]

We don't have counselling or rehab services available - never mind the housing.

To my point - sticking a street addict into a house with no other plan isn't going to lead to many positive outcomes.

[bomberjet]

The Government spent $250 million on a stadium that's used by the public 10 days a year.

They can surely spend that amount of money to build a state of the art centre, with counselling, rehab, housing, etc for people. It takes will.

But potholes something something.

[drew]

^ totally agree.

But the issue with addictions and treatment is that all of it centers around the requirement that person is willing to enter the treatment, and sober to start.

We need a different kind of program for people that don't fall into that category - and a street addict is almost certainly never entering one of these programs voluntarily.

[bomberjet]

Yes for sure. There's got to be something we can do for all the people I see out there. Some kind of incentive to not live in tarp cities on the edge of Disraeli. Something.

As much as it is not the solution, but moving people along from tent cities is most definitely required. It's always controversial but has to be done. And where can they go after is what needs to be sorted out. Creating dedicated slums is not the answer either.

If there is some type of place where they can go that is somewhat supervised, provides common areas for people to gather, resources there. Maybe Portage Place is the answer. Convert in into a large centre for people.

[thurmas]

If they could build 4 housing centers for each end of the city and one downtown that has in house counciling and drug abuse treatment would do amazing things hell even one or 2 of them would be a huge improvement

[wags_in_the_peg]

last night bus shelter glass smashed, 2 that I saw this morning Main & Mayfair and St. Mary's & Tache. so f'ing frustrating seeing that and all the spray pain on bridges.

98% good people, 2% bad people, but the damage those 2% cause is immense. let's get something done

[WildCake]

Originally Posted by thurmas

If they could build 4 housing centers for each end of the city and one downtown that has in house counciling and drug abuse treatment would do amazing things hell even one or 2 of them would be a huge improvement

Absolutely. We need resources aimed at helping the problem, not the symptom. Someone out there asking for change is a symptom of the homelessness/ addiction problem.

Fining them or asking them to move is addressing a symptom and not the root cause. They will go to another intersection, or worse, resort to theft/robbery to make their financials work.

If you address the root cause and get these individuals counselling, housing, supports, jobs, then wandering around asking for change for their next hit becomes less of a priority. Then walking around high and smashing bus stops happens less often, and the city starts to look a little better.

[Jammon]

Originally Posted by WildCake

Absolutely. We need resources aimed at helping the problem, not the symptom. Someone out there asking for change is a symptom of the homelessness/ addiction problem.

Fining them or asking them to move is addressing a symptom and not the root cause. They will go to another intersection, or worse, resort to theft/robbery to make their financials work.

If you address the root cause and get these individuals counselling, housing, supports, jobs, then wandering around asking for change for their next hit becomes less of a priority. Then walking around high and smashing bus stops happens less often, and the city starts to look a little better.

Addiction issues are pretty tough to address. You also have to recognize that people have a right to live at risk and may never seek treatment. The biggest issue that this city faces is the lack of addictions coordination and quite frankly, a lack of a safe injection site. Plus, in this province, we tend to approach addictions from an abstinence perspective as opposed to a harm reduction perspective.

The easiest solution is to partner the Cadets with Street Connections or a team of social workers, registered psychiatric nurses- something like that. Keep having these teams connect with the individuals and relocate them to resources. Some will never accept the services, but others do with persistence. I also would create a PACT team that is exclusively directed to working with the homeless population. Getting them services, accessing medications. Go to them where they are.

[esquire]

Why is the situation so much more pronounced and visible here than just about anywhere else in Canada.

I don't think we'll ever eliminate addictions and mental health problems, but we could obviously do a much better job treating them.

But that said, everywhere else supposedly has these social problems too. So why are we one of the only places in Canada that has a downtown and inner city that feels like a wasteland in large parts? You go to Calgary or Regina and it's a different story. You go to Victoria and there is a block or two of Pandora that's rough but the rest of downtown is fine. Why is the problem an order of magnitude worse here?

[Sheepish]

Most will remember when the 'Main Street Strip' was our problem area. It was incompatible with the Concert Hall and Civic Center. The popular belief was get rid of the beer hotels and the problem will be resolved. Of course that didn't take into account the problem with substance abuse that was not related to the beer halls. Nor could anyone predict that meth and opioids would take over. I think it is also fair to say that we have seen an increase in the at risk population. So the result is the problem has literally spread to every (street) corner of the City. I swear, I'm not trying to be a negative, glass half empty poster. There are so many things I love about this place - but man, its becoming a real challenge to overlook the warts. In fact, I am disheartened. I hope that our next Mayor (Murray!) and premier will really commit themselves to addressing this so that we can focus on developments and growth and opportunity.

[GreyGarden]

Originally Posted by esquire

Why is the situation so much more pronounced and visible here than just about anywhere else in Canada.

I don't think we'll ever eliminate addictions and mental health problems, but we could obviously do a much better job treating them.

But that said, everywhere else supposedly has these social problems too. So why are we one of the only places in Canada that has a downtown and inner city that feels like a wasteland in large parts? You go to Calgary or Regina and it's a different story. You go to Victoria and there is a block or two of Pandora that's rough but the rest of downtown is fine. Why is the problem an order of magnitude worse here?

I've concluded that a large part of it has to do with the fact that the neighbourhoods directly to the north and west of the City are really poor. Even Osborne Village isn't exactly a cluster of wealth. In contrast, in other Canadian cities, the surrounding inner city neighbourhoods are really desirable, expensive areas to live in. Maybe I'm wrong on that, but I've always assumed our downtown and inner city appears so much worse because it doesn't have enough wealth to mask the 'disorder'. Last time I was in Toronto there was plenty of 'social disorder' - but there is enough wealthy people living in the area that the area feels populated and safe and you have to look past the wealth to see it.

This is partly why I think the City is stuck. I really doubt Winnipeg is going to emerge as a leader in terms of solving urban homelessness and addictions issues. I'd love for us to be and would support any politician on that mission, but I just don't see it happening given our population. So my prediction is that we kind of stay the course, and slowly wealthier people will move into the inner city neighbourhoods as they have been and the area will slowly feel cleaner and safer.

[thurmas]

Originally Posted by GreyGarden

I've concluded that a large part of it has to do with the fact that the neighbourhoods directly to the north and west of the City are really poor. Even Osborne Village isn't exactly a cluster of wealth. In contrast, in other Canadian cities, the surrounding inner city neighbourhoods are really desirable, expensive areas to live in. Maybe I'm wrong on that, but I've always assumed our downtown and inner city appears so much worse because it doesn't have enough wealth to mask the 'disorder'. Last time I was in Toronto there was plenty of 'social disorder' - but there is enough wealthy people living in the area that the area feels populated and safe and you have to look past the wealth to see it.

This is partly why I think the City is stuck. I really doubt Winnipeg is going to emerge as a leader in terms of solving urban homelessness and addictions issues. I'd love for us to be and would support any politician on that mission, but I just don't see it happening given our population. So my prediction is that we kind of stay the course, and slowly wealthier people will move into the inner city neighbourhoods as they have been and the area will slowly feel cleaner and safer.

I would agree with that assessment the wealthy and middle class neighborhoods don't filter directly into downtown like other cities do whereas we have extremely impoverished neighborhoods that flow directly into a downtown that is massive for a city of our size

[GreyGarden]

I think it also partially explains why downtown development in Winnipeg is so sluggish compared to some of the similarly sized or smaller Canadian cities. There is no reason to live downtown as a way of accessing nice neighbourhoods you are priced out of. With the exception of Wolseley, no one is competing to gain access to inner city neighbourhoods. Wolseley is also the only wealthy neighbourhood that "flows" into downtown. Everywhere else is cut off by the river and our very low number of bridges.

Anecdotally, and further to my above post, I live in West Broadway and we are definitely seeing spill over from Wolseley. People who are priced out of Wolseley are buying and fixing up properties in WB. Its slow, but it is happening. The area feels nicer and wealthier than it did a few years ago.