City to clean up remains of Osborne Bridge homeless camp following fire, high water

The remnants of a makeshift home are still piled up under the Osborne Street bridge, weeks after people living there were pushed out by a fire and then high water levels this fall.

Main Street Project says about 12 people living there have now accepted housing services with them, except for one woman, known as ‘Granny’, who chose to stay at the homeless camp until high water levels forced her to move to higher ground.

Outreach workers with Main Street Project had gone to the site over the weekend to do some cleaning up, but they say it’s the city’s responsibility to pick up the pieces.

“It is the city that remains responsible once camps are vacated to go and clean them up, that’s not the role of Main Street project,” Main Street Project executive director Rick Lees said.

“Our role is to provide social support services within the camp, so it remains the city’s role to go in and clean.”

The city says they are waiting on Main Street Project to confirm that no one is living in the camp, before they can go in and clean it up.

City officials say residents who come across debris along the riverbank or public property need to report it to 311.

“If the debris is confirmed as either garbage or abandoned belongings, the city cleans it up immediately,” City of Winnipeg communications officer Ken Allen said to Global News in an emailed statement.

“If there is any question of whether the area is inhabited, the city refers the location to Main Street Project who will provide the inhabitants with appropriate supports and assist them in finding alternate housing.

“In this second instance, we will attend to remove any debris left behind once we receive confirmation from Main Street Project or one of their partner agencies that individuals are no longer residing in the area.”

Lees says Main Street Project will likely be able to confirm within the next week that the camp is now vacant.

“Depending on what Granny decides to do, we have already told the city that at least a dozen folks that we know that called that camp home have now accepted home and housing in some of our transitional units,” Lees said.

“So we have told them that and we’ll verify that it’s completely vacant, I suspect by next week.”

2:13 Mayor, councillors say Winnipeg’s homeless camps here to stay