Winnipeg can show homeless they aren't abandoned, architect says

One architect believes cities like Winnipeg can send an important message to the world through urban design — namely, that they haven't abandoned their homeless populations. 

Sean Godsell, the director of Sean Godsell Architects in Australia, is using his talents to design and create public infrastructure that is more user friendly for urban homeless populations. 

Godsell remembers spending his early years watching the homeless in London struggle with benches designed so people can't lay down and train stations that are locked at night.

"That got me thinking that maybe there was a slightly more compassionate way to deal with those realities that people sleeping rough are faced with each night."

Stop dehumanizing the homeless

The murders of three people who spent a lot of time on Winnipeg's streets have many thinking about the safety of Manitoba's homeless community and how the city can do better. 

• One man is accused in deaths of three homeless men in Winnipeg
• Man dies after beating in Winnipeg bus shelter

"The design of our cities can at least send a message to people who are for various reasons are in very unfortunate circumstances send the message that they aren't being abandoned by the community," Godsell told CBC's Information Radio. 

His solution is making park benches and picnic tables into makeshift beds. As well as redesign garbage bins to make discarded food easier to find. 

"Certainly in Australia but even more particularly in Canada, the cold can kill you. So that little manoeuvre of just getting you off the ground and giving you shelter might be the difference between life and death," he said Thursday. 

Godsell said that many city councils have shown "great enthusiasm" for his projects until they hear from their insurance companies at which point the enthusiasm turns to "sheer terror."

With projects like Godsell's garbage bin clip on containers, where food can be discarded separately from other rubbish, health authorities say the liability for people's safety is just too high.

"Homeless people gravitate to garbage bins because they're a source of sustenance in cities across the world but it's a very dehumanizing thing to put your head deep down in someone else's trash just to find your evening meal," he said.

"It's a really big stone wall that we're hitting at the moment and it's a really hard wall to get around or over, I have to say."

Getting user approval

In designing his projects, Godsell has workshops where homeless people come in and look at the designs. Godsell said their reaction is "inspiring and shocking."

There is one conversation that sticks with Godsell above all of the others. 

"[The homeless man] said, 'You know, it's so great that someone is thinking about us because we're not first rate, we're not second rate, we're fourth rate citizens. And we don't have a voice.' And I think that's really true."