Lack of compassion or loss of faith? Some Winnipeggers becoming apathetic to homelessness

I wouldn't say I've lost compassion for the people experiencing homelessness.

I would say more I have lost faith in the different organizations that are meant to be supporting them.

So what is the way forward? Is there some way to get people to reconnect with their empathy? In an attempt to try and answer those questions and more, my colleague Josh Crabb started digging deeper into what's driving these sentiments in our city.

He shared some of his findings with my colleague

Margot Watt.

I know you've been looking into why people may be losing compassion for those experiencing homelessness or living with addiction.

What exactly does the survey tell us?

Margot, the Abacus data survey for CBC suggests 59% of respondents in Winnipeg are starting to lose their compassion for people who are homeless or living with an addiction.

Now, the most common sentiment I heard was that people are seeing more of the side effects of homelessness and addiction.

To get a sense of what's driving these results, I visited the Augustine Centre in Osborne Village.

It's home to Oak Table, run by the outreach organization One Just City.

There's food, programming and resources available there for people in need.

Over the summer, concerns were raised by some area residents and a child care center that operates out of the same building about vandalism, discarded needles, and people lying on the ground around the building.

The first person we ran into outside the center was Rick Dubois.

He volunteers at One Just City and used to be homeless.

He's not surprised about the apathy, but he says it's sad people feel this way.

As we were talking to him, a person hauling a shopping cart overflowing with various items walked by.

You know, they're losing that because it's at the end of the faces.

That's why if you guys weren't here, I'd be moving that cart off.

Because this is what these people look out to.

You know, they look out to this in the morning.

Those aren't cheap places, you know.

They're changing the face of the village.

They'll be trying to push the olive.

Well, where are you pushing? You know, there's just no more road to push.