Details of Winnipeg’s encampment ban enforcement protocol released

The City of Winnipeg has released plans on how it will enforce and remove homeless encampments from banned public places. CTV’s Jeff Keele reports.

The City of Winnipeg has released details on how a homeless encampment ban will be enforced after city council passed the plan in September.

The ban will come into effect on November 17 and will prohibit homeless encampments set up close to playgrounds, pools, schools, daycares, care homes, transit shelters, bridges, rail crossings, and other sites deemed unsafe.

“This is really a motion that was a call to action from residents, from families who are concerned and want to be able to use these spaces during the day,” said Community Services Committee Chair Vivian Santos.

The city released a protocol Wednesday outlining the steps that will be taken to clear encroaching encampments.

First, an encampment is flagged by a call to 311, an inspection, or observed by a city worker. Then a bylaw officer, a mobile outreach worker, and the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service will visit the site.

People staying at the encampment will be offered support, transportation, and relocation options, like what shelters are available before anything is removed.

Next, they will be given verbal and written notice with timelines of when they have to leave.

A city spokesperson said the expectation is that they will work with people to comply as quickly as they can, but there is no firm timeline in the policy to vacate an area. However, police can be called to support an eviction.

Finally, the site will be cleaned up.

“The social service agencies are going to be there to assist us ... together with some bylaw officers, with the police, with the Winnipeg Fire paramedics,” Santos said.

Homelessness advocate Al Wiebe says you can’t force people to leave a tent or force them into housing and questioned how tents can be emptied when there is not enough housing.

“It’s not a good thing to have people who have no idea who the homeless are or how to engage with them to go in cold using a baseball bat approach,” Wiebe said. “If they’re not going to use public spaces, where are they going to go?”