The 23-year-old from Portage la Prairie says she’s been on the road for two years. She ended up homeless after a family dispute and a “rough patch”. “Ever since then, I’ve just been on my feet,” Meeches said in an interview outside her stage. First, live with someone. Then he “couch surfed with friends.” He moved into the camp last winter. That winter – her first outside – Winnipeg took it more snow than any other winter in 100 years. “Living this way — I don’t think anyone should live this way. It’s not right,” Meeches said in an interview outside her tent. Meeches is one of thousands of people the 2022 Winnipeg Street Census estimates face homelessness in Winnipeg.

Over 1,200 without homes

The search, which began Wednesday at Siloam Mission, has reached more than 1,200 people in the city without homes, and researchers say that number does not reflect the extent of the problem.
In a 24-hour period in May, 166 volunteers spoke to people in shelters, transitional housing sites, bottle warehouses and community agencies, walking over 100 kilometers of city streets. The investigation came to more from 200 fewer people than in 2018, the last survey before the pandemic, but the number of volunteers was half this year. The public health practices of COVID-19 also limited how they could interact with those interviewed. “The vast majority of people experiencing homelessness in Winnipeg are Indigenous,” the study said, based on responses from 75 per cent of respondents. The age when people most often said they became homeless was 18, when Meeches first became homeless. More than half of respondents said they had been homeless for more than a year.

“Hidden Homeless”

The survey did not capture people experiencing “hidden homelessness” – those couch surfing with friends or staying with family members – who would not generally be in the locations the volunteers visited, the surveys said. They estimate the population was undercounted “by at least 4,000 people,” based on a ratio of three people for every person experiencing absolute homelessness.
The cold is just one of the many challenges Meeches has faced living outside. She says she needs to muster “courage and bravery to go through the process” of signing up for things like identification, which she needs to access official support systems. “I haven’t graduated. I haven’t lived my life properly. I didn’t have my own house to call home. I didn’t have a license and a job and no experience or anything,” he said. Sage Meeches rides her bike to the Main Street Project to take a shower. It is based on non-profit organizations in the core of Winnipeg that serve people experiencing homelessness. (Trevor Brine/CBC) Meeches relies on services provided by nonprofit organizations that serve people experiencing homelessness. She rides her bike to the Main Street Project, where she takes a shower. Recently signed up for a health card at St. Boniface Street Links and hopes they will help her with her IDs. Despite that help, it’s been a lonely road, Meeches said. “Trying to find someone to help you, to build you back up, someone to help you get out there and support you as a partner — that’s the hardest thing,” she said. WATCHES | Sage Meeches describes what life is like without a proper home:

Sage Meeches talks about life in a homeless camp

Sage Meeches, a 23-year-old from Portage la Prairie, lives in a camp along the Assiniboine River in Winnipeg.

Urgent need for affordable housing

Caryn Birch, director of education at Resource Assistance for Youth (RaY), a nonprofit that serves youth experiencing homelessness, said there is an urgent need for housing units that are affordable enough for youth. Caryn Birch is director of education at Resource Assistance for Youth (RaY), a nonprofit organization serving youth experiencing homelessness. (Submitted by Caryn Birch) There is “a disconnect” between the money people who depend on financial assistance receive from the government and the cost of renting a decent place, Birch said. “The average rent right now in Winnipeg is over $1,000, and some financial institutions are paying a little more than half of what it would look like, so it makes accessing the housing market a lot more difficult,” he said. RaY has seen an increase in young people using drop-in services since the pandemic began. The lack of connection between what property owners charge and what people can pay is driving more young people into unsafe living situations, Birch said. Meeches suggests the government should “think hard” about what people experiencing homelessness are going through. “For me it’s kind of hard. Actually it’s more than hard. I’ve been through more than enough that I’ve had enough,” he said. “Find another resource that will open us up a lot and help us all get through this together as one big family.”