Garbage collection in campsites can be a challenge

A Winnipeg city councilor is calling for trash to be cleaned up at homeless encampments, but a report says weekly trash pickups could cost the city $4 million a year.

A riverside campground along Assiniboine Avenue is littered with trash, and there's even a fire there.

“Visually, it's very unsightly,” said Paul Leonard, who walks the river path every day.

He wants to do something to clean up these sites.

“For them, for us, for visitors, for law enforcement.”

Number. Vivian Santos asked the city's public services to provide a report on what it would take to regularly clean up the encampments.

He said there are times when the encampments are abandoned, but the city can remove tents, couches and trash — others have already moved out.

“So you're going to have more debris and a larger volume of waste accumulation,” Santos said.

There is a report submitted to the Mayor's Executive Policy Committee. It says the city conducted 162 on-demand cleanups in 2023 at a cost of about $84,000.

But it costs $2 million a year to pick up garbage every two weeks. Weekly collections are $4 million a year

Mayor Scott Gillingham said he looks forward to the discussion and debate on the numbers.

“The camps can be dangerous, frankly, unsightly, and there's concern for people who live near the camps,” Gillingham said.

The report also says Main Street Project has proposed a pilot project with the Siloam Mission and the Downtown Public Safety Partnership to collect trash at the camps.

But everyone agrees that the long-term solution isn't to haul away the trash—it's to help people get real homes, not tents by the river.

“A place to go, a place to be,” Leonard said.