Advocates gather at Winnipeg homelessness symposium: They want their voices heard – Winnipeg [Video]

Winnipeg’s battle to end chronic homelessness continues.

On Monday, more than 100 advocates for the unhoused community gathered for a symposium in Winnipeg at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights as a part of that fight.

A major goal was to hear from people with lived experience of homelessness, like Jacob Kaufman.

“The unsheltered community know what they want. They want their voices heard. It’s them; they have the solution,” Kaufman said.

What they want, he said, is housing.

Al Wiebe, who organized the event, said effective housing policy is on everybody’s mind.

“What the city needs to do is have a direct policy focusing first on low-income housing. (It’s) 30 per cent of whatever you’re making, whether you’re on welfare or not. Thirty per cent. They need to absolutely have a focus on that number,” he said.

To help, there should be an effort to build more housing stock, he said, …