The coffee is strong and the soup is warm inside the old St. Vital Civic Centre.
In one corner of the spacious room — which is housing St. Boniface Street Links’ pop-up shelter for a second winter — Glenn Charles Robson is warming up with a cup of joe after a morning of panhandling. He made a few bucks and will brave the frigid temperatures again in the afternoon to make some more money.
He usually plays guitar and sings to commuters to make his money, but since his instrument was stolen he’s relied solely on strangers’ generosity.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Glenn Charles Robson sits on his mattress at the cold weather pop-up shelter run by St. Boniface Street Links, Tuesday.
Charles Robson has been on the streets for five years, but once Street Links connects him with housing — which he anticipates will be within the next few days — he can refocus on his music marketing business.
“(The shelter) is not bad. Beats living in a shelter where you’re there for the night and all morning and then you’re kicked out into the streets again,” he says, sitting on the cot where he slept the night before, surrounded by his belongings.
Two days into the seasonal shelter’s operation, St. Boniface Street Links executive director Marion Willis has already had to turn people away. Other shelters didn’t have adequate staffing to accommodate the influx of people seeking reprieve from the cold, and she received a call asking to take them in.
In November the city announced the allocation of more than $260,000 to support a temporary space at Siloam Mission during stretches of extreme cold. The space opened in December but was at capacity Monday. N’Dinawemak, another shelter downtown, was also full for the evening.
“We (can’t) be the overflow for other shelters downtown because the need is actually just so great over here,” Willis says.
The shelter inside the vacant city-owned building at 604 St. Mary’s Rd., was nearly full on its first day of operation. Willis says the organization has use of the space until May, when she expects the property will be sold; Dec. 2 was the deadline for prospective buyers to respond to the city’s request for proposals.
Willis says the organization is operating on a limited resources and she requires more funding. But she’s committed to making it home for people who need it as long as she can.
“This building is perfect for it,” she says.
Across the room, which is lined with a dozen or so cots for anyone to use day or night, Samantha is making space for herself in one of five private rooms St. Boniface Street Links has reserved for people with medical or mental-health needs.
Samantha, who doesn’t want her last name used, has been on the streets since she began using meth and heroin two years ago. She’s been trying to stay clean and relies on the staff here to keep her accountable.
She also feels safer in the St. Vital neighbourhood than any place downtown.
“I wouldn’t stay in any other shelter,” she says.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Samantha ladles out some hot soup into a cup just outside of her room at the cold weather pop-up shelter.
St. Vital city councillor Brian Mayes says homelessness wasn’t apparent in the south Winnipeg ward until a few years ago and he wants to see more of what the pop-up shelter is offering in his neighbourhood citywide.
“We really didn’t talk about this stuff 10 years ago… I do think we’ve got to do something,” he says.
End Homelessness executive director Jason Whitford says temporary shelters are temporary solutions, and while the need for them is increasing, they’re not sustainable in the long term.
“It’s a response… we can’t continue to pack people into emergency shelters,” Whitford says.
“Creating the pop-up does provide a bit of relief to the emergency shelters, but the unfortunate reality is that the pop-ups fill up just as quickly as they’re created. It would be nice to see some longevity.”
Willis says the pop-up concept allows staff to help connect people who need housing with agencies and other supports that help to provide it. The organization will also continue to lobby the city and province for more funding.
“From the beginning of outreach, our team has always focused on… ‘We’re not going to protect your right to be in this transit shelter. We believe that you deserve better than this and I hope you desire more than this,’” she says.
