'These issues are all interrelated': Advocates are calling for changes to how the homelessness crisis is approached
CTV
Homeless advocates in Winnipeg are wanting to change the conversation around homelessness in the hopes of ending the crisis.
Homeless advocates in Winnipeg are wanting to change the conversation around homelessness in the hopes of ending the crisis.
Marion Willis, the founder and executive director of St. Boniface Street Links, said the homeless demographic has started to shift ever since the drug crisis hit Winnipeg.
"Which now is 60 per cent Indigenous and 40 per cent others and it's not that there is less Indigenous homelessness, there's not. But there's so much more homelessness and that 40 per cent of others is born out of a drug epidemic that was never properly addressed," said Willis.
She added that the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the issue even more, causing isolation and has made it difficult for people to find programming—such as a Rapid Access to Addictions Medication (RAAM) clinic—to help combat the addictions they're dealing with.
Willis said moving forward, there needs to be a new way on how homelessness is viewed, noting it can be caused by a variety of factors like mental health and addictions.
As part of this, she also wants the provincial government to start a new approach to handling this problem. She feels the government has helped by providing funding to certain programs, but she would like to see government sectors join forces to address all the needs of the homeless population.
"Government needs to understand that the increase in homeless numbers, the increase in people struggling with mental health and addictions, the need for more housing and low barrier housing, the increase in property and other types of crime stats, all of these issues are all interrelated, they aren't separate issues," said Willis.
