Winnipeg City Council votes on strategy to address poverty

It’s been two years since the city of Winnipeg approved a comprehensive strategy to address poverty, and on Thursday city council voted on plans for how the next four years will go.

But poverty and housing advocates here in Winnipeg feel more work needs to be done to address the lack of affordable housing in the city.

“The Houston Model is not new, we are already doing it, the difference here is Houston’s vacancy rate was at 16.5 per cent when they started, and now it’s 8.9 per cent.  Ours is 2.7 per cent, we need to expand our social housing supply,” explained Paul Loewen, a communication education coordinator at Siloam Mission.

With the latest numbers showing that 1 in 10 people live in poverty across the city, Loewen says Winnipeg needs to add 750 social housing units annually over the next 10 years to address that need.

It’s a sentiment that is shared by Make Poverty History Manitoba, who says the city needs to invest in more permanent solutions.

“We’ve seen the city really focused on issues that are important but they are focused on preserving dignity and supports for people already living in poverty, we need more investments into ways that will actually end it,” said Barkman.

In addition to housing, Barkman and the coalition would like the new plan to include concrete action on safety, transit, and anti-oppression training for City Workers. But while they would like for city council to be more bold in ending the crisis of homelessness, he is thankful for their willingness to work towards a solution.

“The only way we are going to address homelessness is if we have governments working together, and it’s exciting to see the city be a willing partner in that.”