Budget missed opportunity to reduce poverty in Winnipeg: advocate
Posted March 22, 2024 1:16 pm.
Last Updated March 23, 2024 10:27 am.
Signs of people who need help or need support are everywhere in Winnipeg. But some on the frontline of the battle against poverty and homelessness in Winnipeg say the recent budget was a missed opportunity to make a big difference.
Make Poverty History Manitoba claims the City of Winnipeg has essentially put the brakes on its poverty reduction strategy, as resources and personnel at its heart “did not make the cut.”
“Seriously, put yourselves in our shoes, walk in our boots for the day and night and you’ll see it’s not as easy as some people think it is,” said Steve Jamez, who has been homeless for about two years and says people on the streets of Winnipeg need to see real on the ground investments in both housing and wrap-around supports.
“We do need help,” he stated.
“There’s a lot of mental trauma and disabilities out here. People are disabled, and they can’t access that stuff.”
He says while he’d “definitely” be interested in an affordable spot to live, he said it has to work in a way where he can still engage and help his friends on the streets.
“I just can’t sit back and let my friends be outside, freezing.”
Budget documents acknowledged beyond 2024, that it contains no “long-term funding” for the initiatives, pending conversations with the provincial government about shifting the approach from an outreach model to a “more aggressive housing-first model.”
But that’s not good enough for Desiree McIvor with Make Poverty History Manitoba, who says the longer the city waits, the more people who will be put in harm’s way.
“It should have been a top priority,” said McIvor.
“If we don’t give them what they need, or help them in a way, then they fall deeper into the poverty trap, and there’s so many different levels of poverty. And then once you’re stuck there, it’s very, very hard to get out, unless you have support and resources.”‘
The City of Winnipeg says it will discuss the poverty reduction strategy in terms of both timing and scope when it meets with the province and other key stakeholders.
