Homeless adapt to city’s ban by packing up tent each morning, committee told

A new trend has emerged on Winnipeg’s homeless front.

Outreach workers say they’ve noticed an increase in the number of temporary structures set up overnight and taken down by morning.

The city’s community services committee was told Tuesday that’s likely a way to circumvent the city’s clampdown on tents near parks and school properties, among other sites, that was instituted in November 2025.

Chris Brens, the city’s manager of community development, updated the committee about the homeless status.

“People are creating some sort of a structure or setting up a space to sleep, and in the morning, they’re taking that down and moving on,” Brens said.

“In some cases, (Main Street Project) has identified that the reason for this is some of the work that policy and procedure is doing, with visits from bylaw services, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, Winnipeg Police Services or others.”

These people are not included in the city’s encampment counts that show currently, 216 “known individuals” live in Winnipeg encampments. They are people who have been identified by and received outreach help from Main Street Project. More than half of them are in the Point Douglas and Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry wards.

In June, city staff recorded seven new encampments, for a total of 69 camps in the city.

Another 33 sites were cleared this month, for a total of 141 cleared since the city banned encampments in many public spaces.

Of the 216 camp residents, around 115 have completed registration forms for the province’s Your Way Home strategy in hopes of accessing housing, and 20 have refused services, Brens said.

Those who haven’t filled out forms have some other avenue to access housing or resources, he said.

“Most people in encampments, aside from about 20, would take housing if available, is the information we’re getting from Main Street Project,” Brens said.

The city’s numbers include camps that have been cleaned after outreach from bylaw officers or other municipal services, Main Street Project, and when people have left of their own accord with no interaction with the city.

The city has partnered with Siloam Mission’s team on cleaning up sites that have been cleared. The teams have removed 7,030 kilograms, or 15,500 pounds, of garbage in the past three weeks, Brens said.

Daniel McIntyre Coun. Cindy Gilroy, who is on the committee, said she no longer sees encampments in the parks in her ward, but she worries the data is incomplete.

“Our progress is changing. Now we’re also seeing a lot more people just sleeping in doorways, sleeping in shelters. We’re not even capturing that (data),” she said.

Also on Tuesday, the committee directed the public service to study the feasibility of reinstating early morning swim times at Sherbrook Pool next summer and report back to it in November.

The pool used to open at 6:45 a.m., but now opens at 9 a.m. Monday to Friday from the end of June to the end of August. It closes earlier, too, at 4 p.m. from 7:30 p.m. in previous years.

Weekend hours remain 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The report will look at “current staffing requirements, operating costs, attendance history, and anticipated community demand,” according to the motion, moved by Gilroy.

“It feels like they’re just waiting for the numbers to dwindle down to where they can close it. We have to invest in it, and when we reduce the hours, that’s not investing in it,” she said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca