Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud, who was appointed to lead the province’s high-profile strategy to end chronic homelessness, has resigned only 10 months into the job.
Blaikie Whitecloud confirmed Thursday that she’s given notice and will leave her position as Premier Wab Kinew’s senior adviser on the Your Way Home strategy at the end of November, but declined to provide further details.
She deferred to the government’s cabinet communications office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud is set to leave her position as the premier’s Senior Advisor on Ending Chronic Homelessness at the end of November.
Kinew appointed Blaikie Whitecloud last January at a starting salary of $177, 745 to lead the NDP government’s plan aimed at ending chronic homelessness by 2031 by moving people from encampments to stable housing with needed social supports.
Blaikie Whitecloud had worked in the non-profit sector serving homeless people since 2013, as the executive director of 1JustCity and, before taking on her current role, as the chief executive officer of Siloam Mission.
Your Way Home is focused on creating a new stream in the Manitoba Housing system that dedicates 20 per cent, or 2,500 residential units, to the estimated 700 people who were living in about 100 encampments two months ago.
Blaikie Whitecloud delivered the keynote address at an event last Saturday hosted by the Jubilee Fund, a charitable ethical investment group.
She told attendees that 89 people have been successfully housed through the strategy, and there are plans to move 70 more into housing in the coming weeks.
At the plan’s January announcement, Kinew said the province would work with the City of Winnipeg to move homeless people into housing one encampment at a time within a 30-day window.
He added that 300 new social housing units had been purchased and would be supported by non-profit organizations.
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Kinew said the province would be the sole lead and co-ordinator of the strategy, streamlining the efforts of non-profit organizations, Indigenous nations and municipalities.
Since then, the plan has been criticized for not moving quickly enough.
On Wednesday, the city announced its policy and protocol for removing encampments from a number of public spaces, such as playgrounds and schools.
Council voted in September to prohibit encampments from transit shelters, playgrounds, pools, spray pads, recreation facilities, schools, daycares, adult care facilities, medians, traffic islands, bridges, docks, piers, rail lines and rail crossings, as well as wherever the camps obstruct traffic or pose a “life safety issue.”
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter
Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.
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