'We're missing kids,' children's advocate says after flooding forces office to move

Manitoba's children advocate is worried vulnerable children are being left behind because her office's main headquarters has been closed for months by flooding. 

"I know every day that we're not there, we're missing kids," said Daphne Penrose.

Only one child has visited the offices of the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth since its move into a nondescript building on Winnipeg's Osborne Street in mid-December. The advocacy agency had to abandon its Portage Avenue premises because water was leaking from the skywalk above.

On Portage, the advocate's office was seeing four to eight walk-in visits a day from children and adults, Penrose says.

"When kids come to an office that's locked or closed, when they are coming down off a meth binge or they are hungry or they are really struggling or in crisis ... my biggest fear is they're going to come to the door and walk away and not get the help they need," Penrose said.

That may already be happening, she says.

Kids aren't showing up

She's spoken with tradespeople fixing up her headquarters at 346 Portage Ave., a privately owned building, who say they've seen youth trying the locked doors at that location.

"I come back here [to the Osborne office] and I find out they didn't make their way down here, even though the sign is right on the door that they're trying to open."

A notice on the front door re-directs people to the temporary office at 270 Osborne St. N., between St. Mary Avenue and Broadway. The government-owned property does not have any exterior signage alerting people that it's the current home of the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth.

The independent office of the Manitoba Legislature receives provincial funding, but is not part of any government department. 

Penrose says the biggest thing she's mindful of when children aren't showing up is her office's legal responsibilities to advocate for the rights of children and amplify their voices.

She's been told her office will be back in the Portage location on April 1.

In the meantime, the move has almost doubled the number of employees working at the Osborne location — a government building which was already serving as a home for roughly 20 employees of the children and youth advocate's office.

Some staff are now working out of storage closets, and the children and youth agency has been forced to rent space elsewhere to hold meetings with families and stakeholders.

"It does make working difficult," Penrose said of the space crunch. "Investigations require staff to have tons and tons of material that they look through, so crowding is an issue for sure."

That has prompted the office to delay the release of some reports, she said.

The costs of buying new furniture and renting meeting spaces will come out of the advocate's budget, but Penrose couldn't give an estimate on what those costs will be.

Since she was sworn in as Manitoba's children's advocate in 2017, the office on Portage has flooded five times, Penrose said — two events have been serious enough to result in a multi-month eviction, including the most recent event, which cause the ceiling to give way and soaked the floor.

In a statement, the provincial government said it is in regular contact with the owner of the Portage Avenue building — who the province says is responsible for repairs — to ensure the advocacy agency can return to its office by April.

The government said it moved quickly to find available space for the children and youth advocate, but it is difficult to find a venue that meets the agency's needs.

The advocate's office said the flooding issue wasn't the fault of the landlord, but stemmed from the skywalk above.

Penrose said the lease for the Portage office was extended two years ago but her agency is waiting for a new, larger complex to absorb all of its staff. It received approval for a new location last October from the province's Legislative Assembly Management Commission.

Penrose says she doesn't know where the new venue will be, but she wants the new office in a neutral but accessible location for youth who need help.