A fire broke out Wednesday morning at one of two homeless camps near the Disraeli Freeway just as local officials moved in to ask people to pack up and leave.
A man was seen throwing items into the fire, including a mattress, and yelling before two people restrained him and the fire department could put it out.
No one was hurt. One person was arrested.
The fire was put out within 15 minutes. It was the second fire at the camp Wednesday morning, said firefighters at the scene.
The City of Winnipeg said Tuesday it would begin to dismantle two controversial homeless camps set up near the Manitoba Metis Federation headquarters building on Henry Street.
Assistant Fire Chief Mark Reshaur and local officials moved in at about 9:30 a.m. to issue an order for those living at the camps to leave by Friday.
Protesters arrived at the scene shortly after 1 p.m. and made speeches before marching to Winnipeg City Hall, where they stopped traffic briefly at the corner of Main Street and Market Avenue.
When they got back, participants in the march started banging on the doors of the MMF to be let in after the MMF locked its entrance.
In the above clip, protesters are chanting “no more evictions on stolen land.”
The MMF recently threatened to sue the City of Winnipeg if the camp was not dismantled. Protesters passed around a bullhorn to make speeches objecting to the MMF’s actions.
‘Change has to come’
Robert Russell, who has lived at the camp since December, said he wasn’t surprised to see the city move in, despite what he says were previous assurances from city officials otherwise.
“We all thought that at some point they were going to come, even though they met with us earlier on, just before spring, and said that there was no move coming to remove anybody or any of the camp,” he told Global News as efforts to dismantle the camp got underway Wednesday.
Russell said he was disappointed to see the fires and hopes they don’t distract from the message he wants Winnipeggers to take away from the situation.
“If we leave … people will forget about what’s going on,” he said, explaining he sees the camp’s visibility as a way of keeping the issue of homelessness in the public conversation.
“It generates people to think ‘well why the heck would they want to stay there? Why are they living like that?’
“That question then promotes talk, and if you want to talk about it we can talk to you about it and get the message out that change has to come.”
Russell said he chooses to live in the camp because he says it’s better than the condition of the housing made available to him through social assistance.
“There’s bed bugs, cockroaches, mice, rats, all in the same place,” he said of the nearby hotels used for housing.
“The rooms are very small, the locks on the doors don’t work, so there’s safety issues, so if you leave your place you might not come back and have your things there.
“It’s not some place you really want to be.”
Russell said he isn’t sure where he will go once the camps are taken down.
“When you get one days’ notice, that you’re going to be evicted the next day, the thoughts of where you’re going to go, it’s not that you can just jump on Kijiji and say ‘hey where can I go’.”
Complaints made
The move to dismantle the camps came after complaints from city councillor Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan), who last week called them a safety issue, and the Manitoba Metis Federation who have said staff at their nearby headquarters have been harassed by some living in the camps.
In a statement Tuesday the city said it would be working in partnership with other agencies to make sure those being forced to move have help finding housing.
“Main Street Project, End Homelessness Winnipeg and other agencies will also be on-site on an ongoing basis through Friday to provide assistance and link willing individuals with alternate housing and other supports,” said a city spokesperson.
“Main Street Project has purchased and will provide supervised storage units for individuals to safely keep any belongings they are unable to take with them.”
Executive Director of Main Street Project Rick Lees said staff will be on scene until the end of the week to help clear out the encampments.
“From now until noon on Friday, we’ll be here every day,” he said.
“The process is to start by assisting folks here and just cleaning up garbage that they’d like to see removed anyway.”
Lees said they’ve purchased tents for residents who may not want to use the available housing options — adding the camps have shrunk over the past few weeks, with just a couple dozen people still living there.
–With files from Diana Foxall and Shane Gibson