Homelessness In Canada Essay

Homelessness: The Problem Of Homelessness In Winnipeg, Manitoba

The homelessness population is constantly growing. Winnipeg's communities are always in need of support. Educating ourselves on the root problems of how individuals become homeless can change perspectives and social views on these different communities. Winnipeg's main goal is to fix this problem. With support in mental illness, addiction, poverty, job loss and simple areas we can get our homeless people back on their feet. With helping our population in the past and present our shelters have grown for the better, to make homeless people in Winnipeg feel as safe as they can. Homelessness is a critical global issue, affecting our city Winnipeg and our help and support is what

Winnipeg homeless people are faced with struggles everyday. From lack of affordable housing to emotional and mental illness. This community goes through a lifetime of trauma. The root of homelessness comes from a variety of reasons. United Way Winnipeg included mental illness, addiction, poverty, job loss, and violent family situations as main reasons Winnipeggers become homeless. (United Way). These reasons make it more difficult to find employment, leaving them with low to zero income making the struggle of homelessness even harder. The Homeless Hub provides information about Winnipeg homeless statistics. According to The Homeless Hub, Winnipeg struggled with over 1,200 people experiencing homelessness in 2021. With Winnipeg only having around 400 beds in shelters at the time, over half of the people experiencing homelessness did not have a safe space to stay (Homeless Hub). As a result, communities in Winnipeg are forced to live without safety, and struggle in many ways unimaginable. These events causing trauma can lead to mental and physical illnesses that make the process of coping and escaping homelessness much more

The homelessness problem in Winnipeg is no easy fix. We want to see change with our homeless community, but how we do that is the question most can not figure out. Winnipeg homeless are struggling with finding support individually, as the focus is always on our shelters as a whole like Brian Pincott said in an interview with The Winnipeg Free Press. “The focus has been more around the big projects, more around business and less around people,” he says. “The big signature projects, as opposed to what livability actually means (Pincott, B)”. With the statement Pincott said, it leads into the question on how we can help as a city. Any support given towards the homeless is always going to help, but when it comes to deciding how you want to give back that's where we can change for even better results. Winnipeg needs to have a plan as a whole to fight this problem. The St. Boniface Street Links founder Marion Willis says that the root of our homeless issue is related to addiction and lack of individual support. Willis believes that “It’s the type of support an organization like hers, which works to end homelessness and poverty and prevent crime through social development, is able to provide on an individual basis (Thompson, S)”. A homeless person is commonly referred to as different, and known as a dangerous threat. When we approach a person with the