Garbage truck, tractor brought in to clean up 2 Winnipeg homeless camps
Austin Grabish | CBC News | Posted: June 10, 2020 6:31 PM | Last Updated: June 10, 2020
Residents at camps ordered to leave by Friday at noon, but some say they'll stay
An industrial garbage bin and a tractor were brought in at two encampments near the Disraeli Bridge on Wednesday, where residents have been ordered by the City of Winnipeg to leave by Friday.
"I think it's bullshit," said Desirae Whitehead, who has been living in the smaller camp on Austin Street since last August.
"I'm not a homeless person. This is my home. This is my family."
A city crew started to clean up garbage at the two camps Wednesday morning using the tractor and the industrial garbage truck.
Whitehead was speaking in front of the remnants of her camp, which saw two fires on Wednesday morning alone.
WATCH | Fire at Austin Street homeless camp:
The fires underscored safety concerns that have been raised by agencies who work with people experiencing homelessness.
"We're not here to oppose encampments," said Rick Lees, executive director of Main Street Project. But he said Winnipeg's fire department feels "this is unsafe and people could die."
Lees, along with a representative from the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, issued residents in the two camps a formal order Wednesday to vacate the camp by Friday at noon.
Some residents of the camps have told CBC News they intend to stay.
"I'm optimistic that that's not going to happen," said Lees. "We're basically saying to people that this is not about the moral debate of encampments. This is about life safety.
"If people choose to … continue to camp in other areas we just want them to do it safely."
Robert Russell, one of the camp's residents, has become an advocate for his homeless peers in recent days.
"I don't want to leave and several of us don't want to leave, so we'll see if they're true to their word that there's not going to be a forcible eviction."
Winnipeg police Chief Danny Smyth said police will not lead the eviction.
Russell, who chooses to live in the camp instead of a nearby hotel room, said the camps highlight the bigger problem of the lack of affordable housing and problems with Manitoba's welfare system.
Housing approved by employment income assistance is "atrocious," he said.
"They should be condemned buildings, and that's what they're saying is OK for people to live in. I don't think that they would live in it, and I don't think they should ask … anyone to live in it."
Social assistance rates too low: camp resident
Russell doesn't think it's fair the province will pay an organization like the Salvation Army just over $1,000 a month, or $35 a day, for rent and three meals for people who live in rooms there. He says if he got that kind of assistance directly, he could get a decent apartment and have independence.
"Why can't you just give me $900 then, or $1,000, and I can live in a better neighbourhood where I'm not tempted to use drugs or I'm not worried about violence?"
The province pays $796 a month to individual adults with no children who are living on assistance. Russell says that's not enough for him to live in a place where he'd still have a sense of dignity.
The Salvation Army said the $35 a day it gets per person also includes the cost of housekeeping and security.
A rally in support of camp residents drew dozens of supporters Wednesday afternoon. People rallying on behalf of the camp residents shut down traffic on Main Street briefly as they marched to city hall.