United Way unveils plan to end homelessness in Winnipeg

Floyd Perras, executive director with Siloam Mission, applauded the announcement.

"The idea of a one-pointcontact is that somebody doesn't have to tell this story four or five times to get services," said Perras.

Right now, the United Way reportsthere isa lack of data on homelessnessin the city,because many of Winnipeg'sshelters don't keep records of those who use their services.

Recommendations

In order to make up for this lack of data, one aspect of the plan would involve carrying out anannual census of Winnipegs homeless population in hopes of better understanding the demands of those using services.

An organization known as the Community Task Force to End Homelessness (CTFEH) was formed in 2012 to help solve the city's homelessness problems.

Made up ofrepresentatives from the private, public and not-for-profit communities mainly from the United Way of Winnipeg the CTFEHand the United Way's strategic plan would strive to endhomelessness over the next decade.

"We need to move from managing homelessness to ending it," statedRob Johnston,Regional President of the Royal Bank of Canada.

Johnston co-chairs the Community Task Force to End Homelessness with Cindy Coker of SEED Winnipeg Inc. At the conference they outlined a series of key points needing to be addressed for the program to be successful.

Recommendations includeformingan organization that wouldwork with existing shelters to support people living on the street and those at-risk of being homeless.

Theplan also sets out a number of short-termperformance targets to be reached by 2016/2017 that include reducing the amount of shelter users and people living on Winnipeg streets by 20 per cent.

The report proposedreducingthe number of homeless as apercentage of Winnipeg's total population by 10 per cent per year, as well arecommendation to build 300 affordable housing units within the first fiveyears.

Impact on existing shelters uncertain

"You know we have a sense that there's 2,000to 2,500people that are homeless every year, but we know that there's 1,200 unique individuals that come through our shelter every year," said Perras. "But wedon't know how many of those are also going to Salvation Army or to Main Street Project."

Perras saidit's still not clear how the new centre will directly impact work flowat Siloam Mission.

"I still think that needs to be figured out and how that will work," said Perras.

The task force co-chair said it is still too early to say where the new centre would go, how much it would cost or how all the shelters will work together.

"Some of that work will happen from the co-ordinated location, but we'll be able to touch and connect with people through many of the existing organizations that do good work today," said Rob Johnston.

'Housing first'

The plan also suggests adopting the "housing first" model, something that has proven effective in other cities according to the United Way.

The housing first model prioritizes getting homeless people off the streets, or out ofhomeless shelters, and directly into their own homes, rather than focusing onputting them throughvarious levels of treatment first.

Peter Bjornson, Minister forHousing and Community Development, said all levels of governmentneed to work together with local businesses and community organizations to end homelessness.

"This new action plan will help guide us as we apply the lessons of the Housing First model toward providing more safe, affordable homes to vulnerable homeless Manitobans," said Bjornson.

More than 80 people were present for Tuesday's announcement.