Councillor Jake Hiebert spoke on the issue of homelessness and encampments to open up Tuesday’s Steinbach City Council meeting.
He says the perceived influx of homeless people and the visibility of their possessions has become a recent prominent concern of the citizens of Steinbach.
Hiebert says there were/are around 12 people that were frequenting the old vacuum cleaner property, as well as the property behind Ledingham car dealership.
“I've made it a point to stop by each day for the past two weeks in dialogue with these individuals, all of whom have a name. Some of the homeless I talked to prior to homelessness were carpenters, masons, they ran fairly large companies, or they were truck drivers.”
He says communal housing is not what they are seeking.
“They identified their needs as being a long-term place to live, a job, mental health and drug addiction intervention, along with immediate medical care,” he says. “Methamphetamine appears to be the drug of choice among these homeless, some of the homeless women are struggling with previous rapes and abuse.”
Hiebert says homeless people struggling with mental health and drug issues don't trust each other.
“They would rather live in an area with two or three persons that they can trust, people who will not steal their drugs, their money, or their recently acquired possessions.”
He believes the people in Steinbach’s encampments require long-term drug and mental intervention, followed by housing and employment.
This past week, he heard that several of the homeless people have stolen from others, and now have moved out.
He says on Saturday, there were only four people left in the vacuum cleaner property encampment.
Council opened up the conversation and further discussed the issue of homelessness and encampments in Steinbach.
Councillor Michael Zwaagstra says that in regards to the encampment on Main Street, the universal feedback that he has heard is that there's significant concern regarding the safety for the people in the area, the businesses, and for the people who have been in the encampment themselves.
Zwaagstra mentions that even when one specific encampment is addressed, the overall issue still remains.
“We know that the issue will come up again in the future, and we need to be prepared to deal with it.”
He proposed getting City administration to look at what other communities are doing to tackle this issue.
“What type of mechanisms might be at our disposal, is there any steps that we're looking to potentially take?”
City Manager Troy Warkentin says the City of Steinbach has been involved on case by case basis on several different locations of homeless encampments within Steinbach.
He says the process of fixing the issue typically starts by working with the property owner.
“The City has also been in contact with the RCMP, and also with a variety of nonprofit agencies and social support agencies that are operating in Steinbach.”
He informs the encampment that was at 447 Main Street, also known as the old vacuum cleaner property which will soon become The INN, was first noticed sometime in August.
Warkentin says the City's understanding is that the property owner and other individuals who have been connected with that property have been attempting to deal with the issue.
“As I understand it, the owner or individuals acting on behalf of the owner did serve a formal trespass notice to all of the individuals that were present on the property as of September the 5th."
He believes that as of Monday, September the 16th, all individuals had left the property.
@steinbach_online Some #demolition going on in Steinbach this afternoon. Keep an eye on #SteinbachOnline ♬ original sound - SteinbachOnline
Zwaagstra says it would be great to find out some of the potential tools that council could use moving forward.
“What are some of the bylaws, for example, that other municipalities have in place addressing these types of encampments, and is there something we can learn from some of these other municipalities in regard to what they do?”
Steinbach City Council agreed to get administration to look into what other communities are doing, so that council can learn from them.
Zwaagstra notes that when people are dropping off food and donations at encampments, there are better ways to go about it.
“If you want to help, we've heard this consistently from many different organizations, donate to the organizations that are actively working with at-risk people, who actually know how to target it better."
He encourages residents to donate to organizations such as Steinbach Community Outreach, Helping Hands, and Soups On.
“Because we don't want these encampments to continue.”
