Winnipeg’s homeless community may be growing despite efforts to reduce some of the pressures forcing people onto the street.
End Homelessness Winnipeg says there were 8,248 people using shelters, temporary spaces or living on the streets as of the end of March.
“We know Winnipeggers are deeply concerned about our unsheltered relatives,” End Homelessness CEO Jennifer Moore Rattray told CBC News on Monday.
“The problem of lack of safe, affordable housing is just growing, as we can see from the data year over year and even month over month.”
End Homelessness says the number of people entering homelessness “is outpacing” those able to secure housing, with 104 newly homeless people in March compared with February.
The latest figures are in stark contrast to reports the organization provides based on its biennial street census. That “point in time” survey has suggested the number of people without a home is considerably lower than 8,248.
End Homelessness’s latest census, which involves volunteers interviewing people on the street about their circumstances, estimated there were nearly 2,500 people homeless in Winnipeg as of 2024.
An encampment along the banks of the Red River in Winnipeg’s South Point Douglas area in 2024. (Jaison Empson/CBC)
Rattray said the snapshot provided Monday is the product of ongoing, real-time data collection by service providers through the Homeless Individuals and Families Information System “by-name” database.
She describes the system as a federal data-collection tool End Homelessness has been using for internal purposes for years. It is only now issuing snapshot updates after organizations in the sector asked for them.
The by-name list reflects people who have used services or been in touch with homelessness-serving agencies in the past 90 days.
Rattray said there were 5,698 logged by name who were living on the street, using shelters or temporary spaces, as of this time last year. That suggests there’s 2,550 more people precariously housed or experiencing some form of homelessness compared with the end of March last year, she said.
Jump in chronic homelessness
Rattray said there’s also been a jump specifically in chronic homelessness.
As of March 31, 2026, more than half (4,468) of the 8,248 people identified in the database experienced chronic homelessness, meaning they spent at least half the past year without a stable home or went through a cycle of homeless episodes adding up to 18 months over the previous three years.
Rattray said there were 3,140 people experiencing chronic homelessness at the same time last year, with an increase of 1,328 this year.
The NDP government’s Your Way Home strategy set the ambitious target of ending chronic homelessness in Manitoba by 2031.
The strategy estimated there were 700 people living in encampments alone as of early last year.
Jennifer Moore Rattray says about eight in 10 people in unstable housing situations are Indigenous. ‘This is a humanitarian crisis,’ she says. (Submitted by End Homelessness Winnipeg)
This February, numbers from the province and a Winnipeg outreach organization suggested 170 people who lived in encampments had been housed. That’s in addition to 80 who have been moved out of shelters and into social housing, the province said that month.
The NDP government has also renovated and restored 2,100 affordable housing units since it was elected 2½ years ago that weren’t on the market, Housing and Homelessness Minister Bernadatte Smith said. Another 1,700 are either being built or will be built soon, she said.
“But it’s not just about building … it’s about wrapping those support services around those folks that need it. It’s about making sure that our buildings are safe,” Smith said after question period Monday.
“When I came into this role, many folks weren’t even coming out of their blocks, their units. They didn’t even want to live in Manitoba Housing.”
Smith has touted 500 new units expected to open this year, in addition to 215 social and affordable housing promised through $12.8 million in new grant funding in the 2026-27 budget.
The budget also earmarks $24.4 million to purchase and renovate a seven-storey building at 447 Webb Place expected to have 118 transitional housing units for those living in encampments.
Housing and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith says 500 new social housing units are expected to open this year. (Bryce Hoye/CBC)
Smith also sees a $2.5-million bump in adult education in the budget as a way to help people move out of social housing as they enter the workforce.
The Right to Housing Coalition has said housing commitments in the budget fall short. The coalition suggested Manitoba needs to add 1,980 social housing units and spend $311.2 million on maintenance to catch up and meet needs on the ground.
After the budget, Rattray said she was “really encouraged” by the 215-unit social and affordable housing commitment, as well as expanded rent controls and income supports.
She also called for “deeper investment,” something echoed again by End Homelessness on Monday. The organization is calling for more “deeply affordable and supportive housing” to meet needs across the spectrum of the precariously housed population.
Rattray is also specifically calling for more investment in affordable and supportive housing, saying about eight in 10 people in unstable housing situations are Indigenous.
“This is a human rights issue. This is a humanitarian crisis,” she said.
Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham speaks with media at the legislature on March 24 after the release of the 2026-27 provincial budget. (Bryce Hoye/CBC)
Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham’s office said the city has approved “record levels of new housing” over the past four years and provided funding for more than 2,600 affordable and rent-controlled units.
As new homes and units come online, “they’ll free up space across the system and make it easier to move people from the streets into stable housing,” the mayor’s office said in a statement.