The City of Winnipeg says the number of people living in encampments has dropped significantly over the past year, but some councillors say the figures don’t capture the full scope of homelessness on city streets.<\/p>\n
City staff told councillors during a closed-door information session Friday that there were 72 encampments housing about 245 people at the end of July.<\/p>\n
That’s down from approximately 100 encampments and 700 people identified in September 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The city also says more than 260 people have been housed directly from encampments through the province’s Your Way Home strategy, with 85 per cent of those people still housed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry Coun. Sherri Rollins, who called for the council information session, says the city’s figures don’t tell the whole story.<\/p>\n
Rollins says the city’s tracking doesn’t include people sleeping rough in places, such as bus shelters. She has also heard from residents who are becoming frustrated when they report encampments to 311 and don’t see a quick response.<\/p>\n
“We have a failed policy on encampments,” Rollins said, arguing the city doesn’t have enough resources to carry out the policy.<\/p>\n
She says Winnipeg’s current $200,000 funding for the program is inadequate and doesn’t match what other cities spend.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Daniel McIntyre Coun. Cindy Gilroy says moving people from encampments into housing doesn’t eliminate underlying problems such as addiction. Many transitional housing facilities have strict policies against drug use, so residents go outside, she said.<\/p>\n
“I’m seeing this as more of an addiction and mental health than housing, because you can be housed but still have some of the issues that we’re having around addiction still going on in our streets,” Gilroy said.<\/p>\n