Kate Sjoberg: Homelessness and the Speed of Trust

Kate Sjoberg has been calling for more housing in Winnipeg since long before she became Executive Director of Resource Assistance for Youth (RaY). With over two decades in community development and nonprofit leadership, including prior roles at the Wrench, North Point Douglas Women's Centre, the Spence Neighbourhood Association, and Main Street Project, she's seen the city's homelessness response from nearly every angle.

Her assessment of the city's encampment policy is blunt: the map of where people can't go covers nearly the whole city, and the recent sweeps at Main and Logan broke trust in the very place Winnipeg told people to come for help.

In this episode, Kate discusses:

• The city's encampment policy map: nearly all of Winnipeg marked red with places people can't go
• Why housing people faster than "the speed of trust" fails, sometimes within four hours
• The recent sweeps at Main and Logan, and why Kate calls them indefensible
• How decades of government pullback built a sector expected to perform miracles on underfunded budgets
• From the AIDS crisis to the toxic drug supply: the quiet movement keeping Winnipeggers alive

Get involved:

• Get trained on how to administer naloxone - Nahuen Consultation is running community drug poisoning training sessions this summer.
• Learn more about the Right to Housing Coalition
• Support Resource Assistance for Youth (RaY)