People living in tents in Winnipeg are being pushed further from supports due to a rule introduced last fall that is ratcheting up the dismantling of encampments in and around downtown, advocates say.
A new map illustrates how the city’s encampment bylaw change in November has rendered most of the city off limits for homeless people living in tents, several organizations that work with Winnipeg’s unhoused community say.
“We really see that there’s nowhere in the city of Winnipeg where it’s OK to camp, according to this policy and protocol,” Kate Sjoberg, executive director of Resource Assistance for Youth, said at a joint news conference Tuesday.
The non-profit organization developed the map with input from Sunshine House, West Central Women’s Resource Centre, the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, Main Street Project, the Public Interest Law Centre, End Homelessness Winnipeg and some members of the University of Manitoba’s law faculty.
They say the result of the bylaw is that some of the most vulnerable people are being separated from resources concentrated around the core. It has become harder, in some ways, to get people into housing, the organizations say.
The city bylaw prohibits camping on public property, such as in parks, or on streets or walkways.
A spokesperson said the City of Winnipeg will be reviewing the information advocacy organizations shared Tuesday.
A snapshot of the map unveiled Tuesday by several Winnipeg groups purports to show how the city’s bylaw enforcement protocol effectively renders the entire city off limits to the homeless. (Resource Assistance for Youth/Living Unsheltered in Winnipeg map)
The city has said the move last fall was about trying to strike a balance between keeping people on the streets safe while also managing access to public spaces.
The city also maintains there are misconceptions about the encampment policy and suggests “the process itself hasn’t inherently changed” so much as steps have been added for clarity.
The policy approved by council mandated the city enforce existing laws against camping within 50 metres of the following public spaces:
Playgrounds, pools, spray pads, outdoor recreation facilities
Schools, daycares, adult care facilities
Camping isn’t allowed within 30 metres of a bus shelter, bridge, dock or pier, or on a median where a hazard or obstruction to vehicles or pedestrian traffic is present, or “where life safety issues exist.”
The policy also stipulates encampments are only allowed in all other public spaces from an hour before sunset to an hour after sunrise.
Seasonal enforcement of the bylaw began ramping up this spring.
Using the city’s open portal data, the province’s Data MB website and federal data, Resource Assistance for Youth overlaid 25- and 50-metre buffer zone visuals on public Winnipeg spaces subject to the encampment bylaw.
The result is a bird’s-eye view map that is effectively covered in red, suggesting there are few spaces where people with nowhere else to go can camp.
“I didn’t expect to see red over the entire map of the city,” Sjoberg said. “I expected there to be more spaces that wouldn’t have been captured by these measurements.”
The West Central Women’s Centre has been operating a mobile outreach van to support unsheltered people, including connecting them to housing, since 2020.
Lorie English, the centre’s executive director, believes the uptick in encampment evictions is making that work harder.
Kate Sjoberg, executive director of Resource Assistance for Youth, says she ‘didn’t expect to see red over the entire map of the city.’ (CBC)
“We have already seen the impacts of this with unsheltered relatives who we have lost connections with through our own work, and it has disrupted our work to house these folks each time this happens,” English said.
“When people are forced to move, these connections are interrupted, sometimes completely. This can mean missed medical care, disrupted mental health support and lost pathways to housing.”
Levi Foy, Sunshine House’s executive director, said dismantling encampments is affecting work to help find homes for unhoused 2SLGBTQ+ people, who made up 18 per cent of Winnipeg’s homeless population in the End Homelessness 2024 street census.
Since enforcement was ramped up, Sunshine House teams have been losing track of several clients, Foy said.
“We used to be able to connect with community members … multiple times a week to ensure that basic needs are met while waiting for housing options to become available,” they said.
“Now, they might stay at an encampment maybe one or two days a week, or they’ll just bounce around to different encampments so that they won’t get caught.”
Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham said partner organizations need to work with the city and the province.
Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham told reporters at city hall Tuesday the encampment enforcement protocol is about giving ‘parks and playgrounds back to families.’ (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)
“We’ve got too many people that are struggling with addiction, we have too much open drug use, we have too much crime,” he told reporters Tuesday.
“This is not the time to be going in different directions. This is [the] time to be uniting to combat the challenges on our streets.”
Gillingham said he stands with the encampment bylaw change and suggested council passed it “to give parks and playgrounds back to families.
“Frankly, there’s many members of the public who are calling on me to take an even more forceful enforcement approach,” he said.
“I think our encampment policies and protocols are a balanced approach right now, respecting the fact that there’s not enough housing available.”
Gillingham also said the city is “offering a measure of grace” by only selectively enforcing the bylaw.